


Coalescence

by Just_Some_Dood



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming of Age, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, I hope you like build up, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, like super slow, no cordyceps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Some_Dood/pseuds/Just_Some_Dood
Summary: Of all the things Joel expected that morning, being given a case file for a kid in need of a foster home was the last thing on that list. Little did he know that the girl in the file would come to mean as much to him as his own daughter.Ellie never thought she had much to gain from her life. She thought she was destined to just drift from home to home--family to family--until she hit 18, graduated high school, and would live a mediocre-at-best life until she died. So when word that she might make it into another foster home reached her, she thought it was going to be just like all the others. The last thing she would ever expect was that it would be the last home she'd be put into, and that she would become a member of that family.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us), Ellie & Sarah (The Last of Us), Ellie & Tess (The Last of Us), Joel/Tess (The Last of Us), Maria/Tommy (The Last of Us)
Comments: 49
Kudos: 202





	1. The File

"What's this?"  


A young man picks up the manila folder dropped in front of him on the kitchen table. He casts a curious glance at the young woman taking a seat next to him, coffee in hand and placing the spoon on a napkin after she finished stirring.

"You can open it and find out, Joel. Or can you not read this early in the morning?" The young woman smirks into her coffee, taking a generous sip.

The man, Joel, smirks himself in defeat. He opens it, carefully picking up the details in the paperwork. It is a case file, a young girl. Foster kid, another number in the system. Failed to acquaint herself within the orphanages, group homes, and foster homes along the way. His heart pangs at the thought of this girl's situation. He thinks of his own daughter in her shoes, they are about the same age.

"Tough break. Did you find this kid, Tess?"

"Nah," the woman, Tess clarifies. "A guy in my precinct picked her up. The report went to my desk to approve and send off to Child Protective."

Joel takes a sip of his own coffee, his eyes glued to the case notes. "Do you know where she's gonna end up yet?"

"Not quite, Kathy thinks she might do better in a more structured environment, but not too overwhelming. More personal care and normal family structure she said."

Closing the folder with a shake of his head, Joel took a look over to Tess, empathetic to the struggle that were kids' cases. "That's going to be tough, finding a specific fit like that."

"Yeah, it would be. I...had a thought though," Tess trailed off, staring off across the room in thought.

Suddenly Joel didn't like where this was going, "Tess..." he drawled, "where are you going with this?"

"So," she began, looking for the right words, "when Kathy said that...I started thinking. You know you're so great with Sarah."

"Now hold on," he tried to interject.

"And you got a stable income and you know what you're doing," she continued on.

"Tess," he tried once more to interrupt.

"Now just here me out, alright," Tess demanded. Joel learned long ago to not argue with that tone. "Like I just said, you have a good income, plus you'll get the checks from the state, so you won't have to worry about the money. Your hours are stable so you'll be around enough, and I'll be around when you can't. I figured Sarah would like to have someone around her that's her age, kind of like a sister, y'know? I've been doing alright with Sarah now, so I'm pretty sure I can do good with her too. With your credentials, plus me in the house now too, we'd be a shoo in for Kathy to approve us, well you. Since we ain't married it'll be your name on the paperwork officially, but if you go through with this, I'm with you," Tess paused letting her case make its point within him. "Whatever you decide, I'm with you. You know that right?"

Joel sensed Tess' resolve on this. "Yeah, I know, but that ain't what I'm thinking about."

"What are you thinking about then?"

"Well this is a lot, first off. I got a lot to mull over."

"Sure, of course. I don't expect you to make a decision right now. Just to consider it."

"Yeah, but I also have to think about Sarah. Are the two of them gonna get along? What if they get in a fight? What if she gets into trouble?" Joel picks up his mug, more to give his hands something to do while he processes everything than to have a drink. "There's a lot to consider here."

"Well I wouldn't be too worried about that. Sarah's good at getting along with everyone. And I doubt anyone's gonna start any shit in this house with a bad ass police sergeant around," Tess beamed with a bit of pride, laying on her accent thick. It reminded Joel of the sheriffs in the westerns he'd watch as a kid. Why didn't they make more of those anymore? "Think on it for a bit." Oh right, they were having a conversation. "If you want to meet with her, I can give Kathy a call and arrange a meeting for you, alright?"

"Alright. Tell you what, if I meet with her, get a good feeling about this, I'll talk with Sarah and we'll see from there. Okay?"

"That sounds swell, Texas," Tess smiled softly, content that once again she was able to get him to see things her way. She rewarded herself with a victory sip from her mug, eyes brimming an air of smugness that just made Joel sigh in disbelief.

"Theresa Walker, you are going to be the death of me one day."

"Damn straight, big guy."

Their moment was cut abruptly by a sprint down the stairs and passed the table to the counter. The two glanced up to see Sarah shoving eggs in between two slices of toast for an impromptu sandwich, hair still wet from the shower.

"Morning Dad, morning Tess! Sorry can't talk, overslept, gotta make the bus! Love you!" She sped through the words and before they even registered with the two adults she was out the door and on her way to the bus stop.

Joel just sat there, staring at the front door, bewildered at the scene his daughter just pulled. He turned back to Tess, "that girl realize it's Saturday?" He only got a short shrug in response, Tess deciding to get back to her coffee before it got cold. Joel followed suit, but not before glancing down at the closed folder in front of him, reflecting on what Elizabeth Williams could be like.


	2. The Meeting

Joel doesn't remember the last time he was this nervous, staunchly remembering how much he hates this feeling. Part of him can't believe he's even doing this; standing outside a safe room in the police station, or was it called a comfort room? Fuck it, what it's called doesn't matter. What does matter is what's inside that room.

On the other side is the girl from the case file, the girl whom he hasn't stopped thinking about since Tess first plopped the folder in front of him last week. He contemplates turning around now, even though he knows he can't do that. The meeting has already been set up, Tess pulled some strings to make sure this happened, so he can't back out now. What is he even going to say? What if she doesn't even want to see him? How is he even going to connect with her? Kathy mentioned that she prefers Ellie over Elizabeth, but was that being too familiar with her? Too many unknowns and he doesn't even know which one to address first. He really wishes Tess were with him right now. She remembers what it's like a be a teenage girl.

With a sigh and a shake of the head, he musters up the courage and knocks on the door, signaling to the girl inside he's there. He knows he could have just walked in, but he figured maybe she needed as much of a moment to get prepared as he did.

"Um, come in," He heard her call to him, almost questioning in nature.

This is it, get your head in the game, Joel, thought to himself as he slowly entered the room. "Hey, I'm Joel," he introduced. It was rather lame, even he would admit, but he had absolutely no idea how this was supposed to go. "It's nice to finally meet you."

He took a seat across from her place on the love seat. Finally there was a face to the name. Soft features, green eyes, reddish brown hair tied into a simple ponytail. She wore a red t-shirt with a dark green long sleeve shirt underneath, simple blue jeans, and canvas sneakers. The first thing he noticed was how worn to shit everything was, especially her shoes.

"Ellie," she gave with the same amount enthusiasm he had. She was putting away a Walkman and a notebook into her backpack, it didn't look like she carried many things with her. "Um...thanks for meeting with me," she added.

Joel noticed that she seemed guarded, not quite meaning what she said, but not not meaning it either. He didn't blame her for it though. He wonders how many times she's been through this already.

"Don't mention it, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to this," he wasn't really lying about that either. Although it would have been more apt to say he was looking forward to knowing how to feel about this whole thing. So far he still hasn't come to a decision. "God, what the hell were they thinking painting the room like this?" he asked, taking note of the bright yellows and vibrant blues. There were also suns and flowers and really childish smiley faces drawn on the walls.

He heard a light laugh come from her, glancing over he sees a shallow smile, but a smile none the less. She glances up at him, a bit more life in her eyes than before. "It's supposed to be comforting for children, that's what these rooms are for."

"Yeah, well they screwed up."

She laughed again, it seemed like tension was finally starting to ease a bit. "Couldn't agree more. They all look about the same too, and all they've ever done is put me more on edge."

"Oh, I'll bet."

Silence fell over the two again. Joel was mentally kicking himself, he managed to break some ice and just let it refreeze over them. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"So, um, what were you listening to before?" he asked, he figured maybe they can bond over music.

"Oh, um, well I kinda listen to whatever I can get my hands on. Don't really have the means to make my own mixtapes."

Well that plan seemed to backfire. Double down? "Mind if I listen?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah, let me grab it." She unzipped her backpack again, fishing the walkman out from its depths. She handed the music player over to him, carefully keeping an eye on one of her few belongings like it might disappear from his grasp.

Joel gently placed one of the headphones' speakers over his ear and played where the tape was at. Soft acoustic guitar harmoniously made its way, his head swaying a bit as he recognized the tune. It was a favorite of his.

"Wow, I didn't think anyone of your age would be listening to Johnny Cash. He's one of my favorites. Nothing like a quiet evening just plucking away at one of his tunes."

Ellie perked up a bit at that, "you play guitar?" she asked, a bit awestruck at the revelation.

"Yeah I learned to play when I was about your age. Once it got its hold on me, I wasn't ever able to put it down," he responded, a low chuckle coming from his chest.

"That's so cool! I haven't even held a guitar before, let alone play one," she was getting a bit excited now, leaning forward in her seat. "I always imagined myself playing one though. Is it as cool as it looks?"

He laughed a bit, seeing a bit of himself in her when he would watch his father in awe when he played, begging to be taught how to use the instrument he saw as a grail.

"Yeah I think so. Sarah, my daughter, on the other hand, is much more interested in things like soccer and video games than music though. You like any of those things?"

"Video games are kinda cool. When I was in Boston, I'd gather as many quarters as I could find and me and a bunch of other kids from the orphanage I was in at the time would run down to an arcade and spend a day just goofing off. I'm not really into soccer though; never saw the point in a bunch of dudes just standing around and kick a ball back and forth. Hockey isn't that bad though I guess, and the Red Sox are basically a religion up there, so I'd sneak into Fenway sometimes. Still don't really get it, but it was kinda cool when the crowd would freak when somethings happened."

He smiled a bit at Ellie's antics. She would move animately about, her enthusiasm, now that she was riled up, was infectious. "Yeah, baseball's one of those things that I guess either you get it or you don't."

"So, um, what is Sarah like?" she asked nervously, playing with her sleeves.

Joel leaned back in his chair, hoping that if he appeared to be more relaxed, it would help Ellie do the same. "That girl will do whatever it takes to be your friend. She'll talk your ear off if you let her."

Ellie chuckled at the thought, relaxing in her seat as she saw she didn't overstep with her question. "Yeah, I knew someone like that in one of the homes I was in. She would keep trying to talk even after curfew and she'd get us all in so much trouble. She was nice though, she got adopted pretty quick."

Silence fell between them once more, but it was more relaxed this time, not nearly as tense. The more they talked, the more Joel realized he liked this girl. She had a spark to her that was easy to get along with. While she may not be as immediately trusting like Sarah was, he chalked that up to the life she lived up to this point. Where Sarah was eternally optimistic, Ellie had an air of realism, guarding herself in case things don't work out. He wondered how many times she had gotten her hopes up, only for them to be cut away.

"Kathy told me that you build stuff?" she asked, breaking him from his train of thought.

"Yeah, my brother, Tommy, and I work construction together. I do more carpentry where he's more electrical. When I'm not doing that, sometimes I'll hang around in my garage with little projects. Last one I built a boat for us to go fishing in."

"So building a boat is a 'little project' for you?"

Was she teasing him now? "Well when you build houses for a living, yeah building a boat is not that big a deal."

She laughed, more full and true than before. It was cute and Joel felt a bit proud of himself for being able to coax her out of her shell and let herself act her age around him.

Conversation flowed much more naturally between them after that. They talked about various things, finding more common ground in their shared love for cheesy 80s action movies, and she had the same taste in cartoons as Sarah, and she was as witty as Tess, and she was as sweet as Tommy. Ellie was in the middle of sharing some facts about gravity when the door behind them opened signaling their time was up. A but disappointed, Joel let the social worker know he'd be out in a moment.

"Wow it's been an hour already? Man, time flies huh?" Ellie lamented as she checked her backpack for her things.

"Yeah," Joel agreed, suddenly his hand seemed much more interesting than they normally are. "Hey, Ellie," he looked up from his hands to look her in the eye, "I can't promise anything, but I'm gonna talk to Sarah tonight. If...if she's alright with all this...you think you'd mind being with us?"

Ellie flushed a bit, clearly a little embarrassed to he put on the spot, "uh, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't mind being with you guys. I mean, as long as you wouldn't mind having me around?"

Joel smiled. He could tell by the feeling that it was one of what Sarah called his 'dad smiles,' "I wouldn't mind at all. Just have to see how my daughter feels about it."

"Yeah, of course. Totally understand."

Joel could tell she meant it. She understood this wasn't just some decision that could be made on a whim, like throwing in a package of cookies at the grocery store because he felt like it even though it wasn't on the list.

"I'll be sure to let you know how things go," he promised. He meant it too, even if things weren't meant to be, and it meant to see her disappointed, he'd tell her personally what the fate between them was.

She perked a bit at the notion, "yeah, thanks."

He turned to leave, preparing himself for the future conversation he was going to have tonight.

"Hey, um," he turned to see Ellie playing with her sleeves again. She was also in the same position as he was a moment before, memorizing the details of her hands. "You know...you're the first one to come in here and ask me that, you know?"

He didn't know. It must have showed.

"You're the first person to ask me what I wanted. You're also the first person to come into the soft room to meet me, and like talk with me; like actually talk with me. Normally these are, like, way more awkward and feel like I'm interviewing for a job or something. Like I have to prove that I'm deserving of their time or something. I, um," she looked up, dead in the eye. "I just wanted to say thanks, you know? In case I never saw you again. I really appreciate you coming by today."

It was in this moment Joel could feel a bond with her, not like it was before, but like the one he has with Sarah. He could see her eyes, open like he hasn't seen yet. She was putting herself a bit out there, letting her guard down a bit more than she has throughout their time together.

His dad smile hit him again, he couldn't help it. "Don't mention it. I was glad to stop by." He figured that since she put herself out there, perhaps he should too, make himself a bit vulnerable. "You know, when I walked in here, I had no idea how these things were supposed to work. I had no idea what to say," he admitted with a laugh.

Ellie returned the laugh wholeheartedly, "You're also the first to admit that." She smiled, warm and true. "It's always super awkward in here. It's either, like, some really optimistic couple thinking there's something wrong with me and they're going to fix me, or just some person who doesn't give a shit at all, you know? You were the first for a lot of things. You were the first to point out how fucking creepy the soft room is, hell you were the first to knock before coming in here. So, like, props to you for at least being a real person. That was really cool. I'm glad I met with you today."

He chose to ignore the fact that she swore, chalking it up to her just becoming more comfortable around him, also because he remembers using that language too when he was her age. Instead he did choose to focus on her smile. It was so pure and happy and genuine that Joel couldn't help but match it. "Me too, kiddo. You'll hear from me soon, I promise."

She beamed at the prospect, "I'll hold you to that. Take care okay?" She left the room with a wave, making her way to meet with the social worker that interrupted their time before.

"You too, Ellie," he called out to her before she was out of earshot. The more Joel thought about his upcoming talk with Sarah, the more he found himself looking forward to it.

\--

That evening, Joel sat at his front porch, picking away at his guitar when Tess pulled up into the driveway with Sarah, picking her up from soccer practice. The girls exited the car, Sarah running up to him full sprint, quickly throwing her arms around him, going a mile a minute about her day.

"Woah there, first go and take a shower, you stink," he teased. "We can talk after dinner."

"Oh, har har," she threw back, making her way into the house.

Tess took a seat beside him with a sigh, glad to be back home. "I got a call from Kathy today," she spoke, eyes closed enjoying the fact she can finally relax after a long day.

"Oh yeah? What'd she have to say?" he asked, curious about Kathy had to say about his meeting with Ellie.

A ghost of a smile graced Tess' lips, happy with herself for getting his interest so easily. "She said you met with Ellie today."

"And?" he shot back, annoyed that she was purposefully drawing out what he wanted to know.

Tess' grin grew a bit more. Joel was so easy to work up. "Apparently you really left a mark on the girl. Said she never saw Ellie smile like that in the whole year and a half she's been her case worker."

Joel smirked to himself at that. "What can I say? Kids love me."

Tess laughed, teasingly, "watch what you say, Texas, someone might get the wrong idea."

With a shake of his head, Joel sighed, "you know what I meant."

"Yeah I know, you just have a way of saying the right things the wrong way. Make it too easy. So you going to talk with her?" she asked, nodding her head towards the house.

"Told her I'd talk with her after dinner, didn't I?"

"That you did," Tess replied with a huff as she got up from her seat. "I'm starving, you start dinner yet?"

"Yeah, I'll be in in a moment to finish up,"

"Can't wait."

And with that his companion went into the home to wash up before their meal. Joel sat for a few moments humming along to the tune he was playing just moments before getting up himself, ready for the big talk he was going to have with his daughter.

"Hmm, hmm, I walk the line."

\--

It was the second time that day that Joel stood outside a room, ready to have a talk with a little girl. He thought about what he was going to say, how he was going to say it. The more he envisioned the conversation that was about to take place, the more he found himself hoping that Sarah would be on board. He found himself looking forward to the prospect of bringing this other girl into his home, having another to look after. He had no reason to doubt Sarah would be against the notion, Sarah loved people, loved company, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread that it wouldn't shake out how he found himself wanting. With a deep breath and a swell of courage he knocked on the door, ready for what was going to happen, however it was destined to be.

"Come in," he heard his daughter call from the other side of the door.

"You have a moment, kiddo?" he asked, still on the other side of the threshold.

"Yeah," Sarah responded, wrapping the earphones she had in her hands around her phone. "What's up?"

"So there was something I wanted to talk to you about," he started, taking a seat with her st her bed.

Sarah immediately was on the defensive. "What'd you hear?" she asked, nervous and alert.

"So Tess and I have been talking lately and, wait, what do you mean 'what'd I hear?"

"Huh? No you said he needed to talk, what do we need to talk about," she inquired dismissively.

With a slight narrow of the eyes, letting Sarah know that this wasn't over, Joel continued on with his original mission. "Like I said, Tess and I have been talking lately and,"

"Oh my God, are you guys finally getting married!? It's about time, I swear."

"No," Joel interrupted before she could get ahead of herself. With an uncomfortable cough he soldiered on, "no, it ain't about that."

"Then what's up?"

Again Joel found himself lost in the eyes of another. His daughter's eyes brimming with life, curiosity. Itching to know what is about to be shared.

"So, uh, last week Tess saw a case for a foster kid. A girl. Her name's Ellie. Told me I should meet with her. I did today. S'why I couldn't pick you up from practice today."

Immediately Sarah was full of energy, "Really!? So, like, you're going to adopt her right? We're going to be sisters?!"

"Now hold up, it doesn't really work like that," he eased, trying to keep her focus on the talk itself. "So if we take her in, yes she would be staying here. She'd be a foster child, so it's a little different. I was hoping though, that if it was alright with you, that we could have her here. And that, if she were to get placed here, you'd do your best to make her feel welcome."

"What? Of course I'd want her here! It'd be like having a sister! Don't worry, you can count on me!" she promised.

Joel couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm. "Hang on, we'd have to be approved first, and there's a lot that goes on before she can come here, if she even does. I don't want you to get your hopes up now."

Sarah calmed down at the possibility it might not work out, "but you're going to try right?"

"Yeah...yeah I'm going to try, hun."

"Well then I'm going to hope it works out."

"Same here, baby girl."

And with that Sarah went back to her perky self, asking question after question about the young girl he met with earlier that day. He answered as best he could, and when Sarah switched from questions to telling him what her and Ellie were going to do together, he zoned a bit, just taking in the feeling he got whenever his pride and joy was this happy. He wasn't sure if he should be upset with himself or not over the fact he wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, but he was content with just letting her go on.

After a few minutes of Sarah's ramblings, Joel stood from her bed. "Alright, hun, I'm tired. Its been a long day for us both, so get some sleep okay?"

"Yeah, I'll go to bed soon, promise."

He knew she wouldn't, but chose to ignore that. Sometimes you just had to let your children make little mistakes like that. With a kiss to the head, Joel went to leave the room, "Good night, baby girl. Love you."

"Love you too, dad. Night."

As Joel closed the door to her room, he could hear her fingers blazing across her phone, probably telling her friends the news. With a smirk gracing his lips, he left the matter as it was. He got the okay from the voice who had the most sway over him, that was all that mattered right now. He entered his own room, gathering his clothes to sleep in for the night.

Tess was laying in the bed, the TV dancing its glow across her skin. "So how'd it go?" she asked, eyes not leaving the screen as he entered the bathroom, getting ready for bed himself.

"The stamp of approval has been granted. You think you can get Kathy to place her here?" He turned on the faucet wetting his toothbrush.

"She owes me some favors, so long as you haven't been hiding anything from me and pass the background checks, yeah I think I can get her here. All you would have to do is dot your i's and cross your t's for the paperwork."

He hmmed his response from the bathroom, spitting and finishing up. Tess turned off the TV, rolling over to her side, pulling the covers over herself.

"I've got a good feeling about this, Tex. Night."

Crawling into bed himself, Joel did his best to let the song in his head go. He hoped playing it over and over again on his six string earlier would get the earworm out, but with a smile and admitting to his own defeat, he let himself off into the realm of sleep to the harmonies of Johnny Cash.


	3. The Home

Ellie sat in the lobby, jotting along in her notebook, listening to her Walkman. It has been a week since she met with Joel. Truth be told she never thought she'd hear from him again, but a couple days ago, Kathy informed her that she was being placed with him. It could be worse, she figured, she could be placed with the guy that took one look at her and said 'you'll do.' The thought sends a shiver down her spine. Shaking her head, she tries desperately to fight the bobbing of her leg. 

This is just another home, Ellie, don't go crazy over it. Let's just ride this out as far as it's going to and move on when it's over. Just don't fuck them over, she thought as her leg betrayed her wishes. Who even 'them' were she wasn't completely sure. She supposed Kathy was on that list. Her case worker was trying really hard to find a good fit for her, she could tell. Most of the time she got stuck with someone who was just interested on passing her off to the first home that was willing to take her, not really seeing if it was the right move. Ellie had plenty of unpleasant memories of those years and was glad that, at least for the time being, it seemed to be behind her. 

She'd probably lump Joel and his daughter Sarah in that list as well. That guy really went out of his way to try and get her, to connect. That in and of itself was a very short list. Ellie didn't want to get in between Sarah and her dad either. She supposed she should just do her best to stay out of everyone's way and be as useful as possible. Maybe then she wouldn't get cast aside just as she got used to her new environment. Adjusting to every new home was always taxing, with their own unique rules and expectations.

"Shit," Ellie muttered, as her Walkman died. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was silence. Thankfully as she was wrapping her headphones around the device, she heard footsteps down the hall. Peering up, she spotted Kathy, Joel, and a woman unfamiliar to her walking in her direction. "Moment of truth, I guess," Ellie did her best to get her Walkman in her bag quickly, despite her trembling hands.

"Well, Ellie," Kathy announced as the trio halted in front of her. "Here we are. Everything's all squared away. Joel and Tess here know we are going to meet once a month to see how you're adjusting. You have my number in case you need to speak to me earlier than that. Anything you have for me before I let you all go?"

"Nah, I'm good. Figure they want to hit the road as much as I do."

Kathy smiled warmly at her, "than I suppose I should get out of your hair then. Let me know if you need anything, Ellie."

As Kathy left her to her new caretakers, Ellie began to feel the anxiety creep back up.

"Hey. I'm Tess," the unknown woman introduced herself, distracting Ellie from grabbing her backpack and duffle bag. 

Even though the whole situation was awkward, Tess seemed completely unbothered by it. Whether she was just bad at reading a room or she just didn't give a shit, Ellie was unsure of. Joel had taken her preoccupation with Tess as an opportunity to grab her things for her. Before she could object, the older woman was back on her. 

"I'm here to make sure the papa bear 'ere don't go too crazy. He screws up, you let me know, kay?" Tess assured, while also teasing Joel.

Ellie could see from the corner of her eye Joel shake his head at his partner's antics. 

"Jesus Christ, Tess," she could hear him mumble as if this wasn't the first time this has happened. "Quit messin' around with the poor girl. I bet she wants to get the hell outta here." His accent was thicker than the last time Ellie spoke with him. She wondered why that was.

"Hey, I'm just letting her know I got her back is all. Girls gotta stick together."

Joel shook his head again, but this time only retorting with a half sigh, half grumble. On one hand, Ellie felt a bit bad for him as she could feel his embarrassment seep through his being, but on the other hand she couldn't help but smirk and laugh a bit at the two before her. She wasn't completely sure what to make of these two; she'd never encountered anyone quite like them before, but one thing was for certain, these two were fucking weird.

As they made their way for Joel's truck, Ellie mentally awed at its size. Full cab, large bed; she figured he'd need something like that though considering his line of work. Climbing in, Joel placed her bags next to her in the back, while the two adults entered the front seats.

"Sorry I wasn't able to tell you about the plan myself, Ellie," Joel began, starting the vehicle and pulling out of the parking lot. "I figured you'd want to get everything settled right away, so I set on getting all the paperwork squared away as soon as possible."

"No worries," Ellie dismissed, locking her gaze out the window, watching the trees and signs pass by. He wasn't wrong in his assumption, and she was in fact rather glad for his action. She honestly didn't even think she was going to see him again, so even hearing in passing that she was going to he placed with him was quite a pleasant surprise. Even though it would have been nice to hear it from him personally like he promised, she figured she should be grateful. "Um, thanks for everything, Mr. and Mrs. Miller."

"Oh," Joel let out an uncomfortable cough, "We aren't married."

"And it's Joel and Tess, hun," Tess finished, without missing a beat. "No need to be so formal, Ellie."

Ellie couldn't help but wince at herself for her misstep. She was fucking this up already.

"Anyway, Ellie," Joel began, turning on his radio, "What do you want to listen to?"

"Whatever's fine, really. I don't really have any preferences."

"You should take this opportunity while you got it, Ellie," Tess chimed in, "isn't often Tex offers the music up."

"I like a bit of everything. One of you guys pick, I wouldn't know where to start."

Although Joel's eyes were on the road, he could just feel the light in Tess' eyes shine bright.

"Is that an invitation?" she asked, more to herself than to her company.

"No--Tess, wait--"

"Too late, it's mine!" Tess already had the cord in her hand, plugging her phone into it and scrolling through its contents.

Before Joel could get another word in edgewise, the electric guitars at high tempo synonymous with 90's alternative filled the cab.

Ellie could hear another light sigh escape Joel's being. "I offered the music choice to Ellie," he complained.

"And she passed it back to one of us, didn't she? You don't mind do ya, Ellie?"

Upon hearing her name, Ellie looked up from her gaze out the window to see Tess looking out the corner of her eye back towards her. She could see a proud half-smile across the older woman's features, very happy with herself for the turn of events.

"No, not at all. This is fine." And it was, but she figured if what Joel preferred was what he heard in her Walkman last week, then he was probably the odd man out.

"See," Tess turned back to address Joel, "everything's kosher. Just keep driving big guy."

On one hand, Ellie was tempted to side with Joel and change the music--he was the one that went through the trouble of getting her to stay with him--but the other woman seemed to have a sway over him that made her feel like he actually didn't mind too much...strange. Deciding that she should just go back to watching the scenery pass her by to avoid the growing awkwardness overcoming her, Ellie turned her attention back out the window.

"Whatever you say," Joel conceded.

These two are definitely an odd match, Ellie pondered with a light laugh and smirk. Funny how they're supposed to be adults, yet act like spoiled kids with each other.

Upon hearing the sound come from his back seat, Joel glanced in his rear view mirror to see Ellie's amused features, not quite paying attention anymore to him and his girlfriend. Taking the moment while he could, he cast a glanced towards Tess, where they shared a knowing look with each other.

Joel diverted his attention back to the road, content with listening to Tess hum along to the music and seeing Ellie's head sway a bit when he'd glance up to check on her.

After some silence among the truck's three occupants, Ellie brought her attention forward again. "So, um, M-Tess," she started, almost calling her 'Mrs. Miller' again out of habit for trying to be on her best behavior, but deciding to use her given name considering she was told to. That and because she didn't actually know her last name. "What do you do, like, for a living?" Ellie asked, awkwardness coming back at her in full force.

"Cop," Tess offered. "I just got promoted to sergeant a few months back. Before that I was a detective on the organized crime and domestic violence desks."

"Woah," Ellie exclaimed in awe, leaning forward a bit in her seat. All her feelings of nervousness were forgotten for the moment. "What was that like!?"

Tess laughed wholeheartedly, she figured no one could resist good cop stories. So she regaled Ellie with one of her personal favorites while still on Organized Crime. It was a case that started at Vice, but when suspected to involve a larger syndicate, got passed to her and her partner at the time. Took them about 3 months or so to unravel everything, but at the end of the day they were able to make 7 arrests, many of which were of the top brass, and were able to cripple the emerging crime family. She made sure to edit out some of the more sensitive details. No one wanted to think of the more grizzly details that involved a real crime scene. Every so often, as Tess would recount her story, she'd glance back at Ellie and feel a swell to her ego as she saw the teenager listening with rapt fascination, mouth slighly agape, and eyes widened as if she were face to face with a superhero.

"More stories are going to have to wait," Joel interjected, "we're here."

Looking out her window again, Ellie was awestruck at the sight before her. To Ellie, it was like a mansion. While it wasn't super massive, it had that picturesque suburban home feel that she could only imagine in her wildest dreams. Beautiful well kept lawn, clean intact windows, and a porch to boot! This was the most normal she probably has ever felt. She could only imagine how incredible the inside looked.

Joel grabbed her bags, again taking advantage of her distraction. "Come on, I'll show you to your room."

Fucking hell, I'm going to get my own room? Next thing I know, I'm going to get my own god damn spaceship! Ellie quickly got out of the truck to meet with Joel as he approached the front door, unable to contain her eagerness.

The inside of the house was just as insane as the outside. Masterfully crafted hard wood floors, family pictures, and holy crap was that a back porch too? This house had it all! If this was a dream, Ellie wished to sleep forever.

Tess informed the other two she would start dinner, while Joel directed her up the stairs towards what would be her room. Stairs, they had fucking stairs! In the upper hallway, they passed two doors, one a pristine white, the other covered in little cute stickers. Ellie assumed that last one was Sarah's room. Where was she anyway?

"So this is going to be your room," Joel announced. Refocusing her attention to the moment at hand, she felt her heart hitch in her chest.

"Woah..." she uttered, almost like a breath. She tried to take it all in, but with every glance some other luxury popped out at her, demanding her admiration. There was a dresser, a closet, a desk, a window, carpet, and a bed! A bed with sheets. Fucking sheets!

"I take it it's been a while since you had your own room?"

"You could say that."

"Well, it's yours. Just do me a favor and don't destroy it, alright?" he joked.

She saw a lighthearted smile across his features when she diverted her attention to him, assuaging her apprehension that he may be serious. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Before Joel could go over the tour, the door to the room burst open and a little blonde blur zipped in front of Ellie.

"Oh my god you're here! You must be Ellie, I'm Sarah! We're going to have so much fun! I can't wait to show you around the neighborhood and we're going to watch so many movies and play so many games and-"

Ellie was unable to keep up with the younger girl anymore; who seemed to be going at the speed of light. Ellie noticed Joel shake his head and turn to leave the two girls alone in the bedroom.

No! Don't leave me! she mentally pleaded to him. Why couldn't she have telepathic powers right now?

Before she could start brainstorming a way to convince the blonde girl to leave without hurting her feelings, she noticed Joel pause at the entryway. "Hey, Sarah."

Quickly pausing in her spiel, Sarah turned her attention to her father. "Yeah, Dad?"

"I told Ellie she should hit the shower while we wait for dinner. Why don't you help Tess get everything together, I'm sure she could use the help. You can talk with Ellie after we're done eating."

"I'm on it," Sarah announced, making her way out of the room to help Tess downstairs.

As Sarah passed Joel, he winked at Ellie. She felt a surge of relief at the notion. "Bathroom's next to your room. Linen closet is in there as well. Feel free to use anything in there you need, we'll set you up with your own stuff soon," he informed her softly, making sure his daughter wouldn't learn of his deception. "Better get in there quick before she catches wind something ain't right. When you're done, feel free to hang out in here and get yourself settled in alright? We'll call you when food's ready."

"Got it. Thanks," she matched his low tone, careful to avoid Sarah possibly over hearing. She watched as Joel closed the door, leaving her to her privacy. She went to grab a change of clothes, but not before taking another moment to just soak in the room, her room. That was going to take some getting used to. That and the fact that he went out of his way to act as a buffer between her and the hurricane that came at her just a moment ago. 

Breaking from her thoughts, Ellie made her way to the bathroom, absorbing every detail she could. Nice tile work, neutral colors that fit well with the ascetic, a double vanity, and a big tub and shower. She went to what she assumed was the linen closet Joel mentioned, taken aback by all the towels and the myriad of colors among them. Gingerly, she took one and bunched the material into her hands, letting the softness of it coat her skin.

Ellie turned the nozzle for the shower, letting the water run over her fingers. She wonders how long it's been since she had been able to take a hot shower. Sitting on the toilet seat waiting for the water to heat up, she carefully brought the towel to her face, rubbing it over her nose before taking in a deep breath, loosing herself in its clean, lavender scent. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw the mirror fogging in response to the steam coming from the shower. She figured she should head in before she wasted more water doing weird things like admiring a clean towel.

Quickly stripping down and taking out her hair tie, she wasted no time getting in, enjoying the jolting burn that shocked her system. She stood for a while, letting the water pelt over her face and make its way through her hair. While under the shower head, Ellie contemplated what to tackle first, hair or body. Deciding to put it off for the moment, she turned to browse the selection of hygiene products decorating the soap dish and tub corner behind her. She can't get over the fact that she actually has options. She spotted the lone masculine body wash, shampoo, and conditioner bottles, advertising a fresh rain scent. Those were obviously Joel's. While she'd be more than happy to use literally anything given to her, grateful just to be able to wash in hot water, she figured it would probably seem weird to everyone else if she used the men's care products. She scans over and takes note of the more feminine choices. There were three bottles of shampoo and matching conditioner--one coconut scented, another strawberry, and the last lilac--and two bottles of body wash. There was also two bars of soap. Smelling the two, confused as to why there would be two to begin with, she detects one to be a lavender scent where the other is a neutral plain one. That makes a bit more sense, if Joel needed a regular bar of soap if his other option ran out, he probably didn't want to come out smelling like a field of flowers. Putting down the regular soap, she felt like treating herself a bit to the lavender bar, before she spotted that one of the ladies' bodywashes had exfoliating beads in it. 

"Fucking sold," Ellie uttered to herself. Feeling adventurous, she swapped the body cleansers and began scrubbing along, letting out an almost guttural groan as she massaged the solution into her skin, the hard grains working out her pores. As the lather built up, she noted the color change from the original creamy white, to a dirty brown. "Gross," she drawled, letting the foam rinse off of her. Again, she remained stationary for a bit, just letting the hot water work out knots in her neck and shoulders. She eyes the shampoos and conditioners in front of her. She's never used conditioner before, so she doesn't really know which one is supposed to go first. Deciding it doesn't really matter all that much, she grabs the coconut shampoo and works it into her hair, carefully working out the knots and rubbing along her scalp. She let's the water run through her hair again, this time choosing to ignore seeing what the color of the soapy solution could be. That was one thought she didn't want to dwell on. Supposing that the shampoo has been washed out by now, she sets off on the conditioner, enjoying the silky feeling. She can't believe this is normal for most people, that they can do this whenever they want. She felt like royalty. Rinsing away the conditioner from her hair, she spent the next few moments just standing again. It was just so refreshing to actually have a hot shower that she couldn't help herself. This whole thing had to be a dream. There was just no way this was all happening. She was going to milk this for all she could. She shook her head back and forth a few times, whipping her hair across her face. When she stopped, she felt the happiest, most pure smile envelop her face, mouth agape and not giving a shit over the water filtering into her mouth. As she stood there, a feeling of peace she has never known before washes over and she couldn't help but think, this is the fucking life.

She finally relented to exit the shower when she noticed just how pruned her hands and feet were. She wonders how long she was in there for them to come out looking like that. She went to work drying off, relishing in the soft fabric glide across her frame. When she finished, she realized she had a problem, what to do with the used towel? Glancing around the bathroom, she didn't spot a laundry basket or anything that would indicate a destination for it. Praying she doesn't fuck anything up, she settles on folding the towel and resting it on the toilet seat before dressing. She took the towel and her old clothes with her to the bedroom. When she exited the bathroom though, the aroma of tomato sauce and basil wafted up from the kitchen. The other worldly scent gave her pause. Ignoring the danger of getting caught, she breathed long and deep, committing the smell to memory. 

Deciding she risked looking like a weirdo for long enough, Ellie retreated to the bedroom, placing the dirty laundry on her duffle bag that Joel left next to the bed. She flopped onto the bed, disregarding the fact her hair was still a bit damp and transferring the moisture to the pillow sheets. She turned her face into the pillow, taking in its plush cushion. She lightly brushed her face along the soft linen, feeling a tear work its way to her eye and a breath lodge in her throat. She really didn't want to wake up.

After some quiet time amongst herself, she heard a knock at the door. "Food's ready, Ellie!" she heard Sarah announce from the other side. Ellie quickly rubbed at her eyes, disposing of any evidence. She took a slow, deep breath, composing herself for the event ahead of her.

"Coming," she got up, straightening out the creases she put in the bed. Opening the door, she was met with Sarah right in her face, beaming.

Sarah took her by the hand and dragged her down the stairs to the kitchen. "Come on, don't want the food to get cold." Ellie allowed the young girl to lead her away, deciding it was simply easier to accept her fate rather than fight it. 

As they made their way into the kitchen, Ellie was astonished at the feast before them. Rotini pasta with tomato sauce mixed in and an extra pool of it on top, melted cheese decorated the top of the bowl and green spices completing the presentation.

"Woah," Ellie gasped, it looked so good.

"Well, take a seat and get ready," Tess informed the pair, setting down the silverware.

"Here, sit next to me," Sarah proceeded to drag Ellie into a chair, promptly taking the unoccupied seat to her left.

Joel appeared from behind Tess, a bottle of red wine and two glasses in his hand. "Woah, look at the mane on you," he teased, immediately earning a backhand to his arm from Tess. "What?"

What indeed. The hell was he going on about? When Ellie went to inspect herself, a mess of hair fell in her face. Damn, she forgot to retie her hair. It must look crazy right now with only parts dry and others still damp. Utilizing the shield in her face, she swallowed the embarrassment while she could. Through her veil, Ellie saw her plate taken from in front of her. God dammit, she thought, why do they keep doing things for me? I should be doing it for them. A sizable portion of pasta was returned moments later. Throwing her hair behind her, Ellie noticed Sarah begin eating her meal, perplexed at the prospect of the kids eating before the adults.

"Something wrong, Ellie?" she heard Joel ask, uncertain as to why she hasn't started eating yet. Did he seriously not get it?

Her thoughts were broken as she heard Tess give a knowing laugh. "Must be waiting for you, Tex. Must've spent some time with some real old school folks."

Ellie saw Joel's face shrivel over a quick thought, before grabbing his fork and taking a spearful of food from the large bowl into his mouth. "There, now eat."

Quickly Tess, set the plate in her hand down, and proceeded to smack him again, this time in the chest and with more force behind it. Ignoring the slight wheeze in response, she pointed her finger at him. "Be thankful that was clean or I'd make you'd eat the damn thing."

Oh fuck was she pissed. Ellie immediately went to work on her food, careful not to inadvertently draw the woman's wrath to her next. She made a mental note that Sarah seemed completely unfazed; this must be a common occurrence in the household.

"Yeah, I deserved that," he conceded, sliding into his chair, next He seemed oddly proud of himself though, considering he just put himself in the doghouse.

Tess took the empty seat to her right, unashamed of having to discipline her man. With a flip of a switch though, the tough girl went to the assured, playful woman she was all day. "Had a good shower? You were in there for a while."

"Tess, come on. We're eati-"

Joel promptly shut up, seeing the daggers thrown at him from across the table.

Sarah patted his arm, "Don't worry, Dad, I still love you."

"Nice to know someone still does."

"Joel..." Tess dared him to continue.

"Shutting up now."

"Good boy."

Ellie, while a bit shaken witnessing this small war brewing between the two adults, was thankful for the distraction so she could swallow the unease that was talking while everyone was still eating.

"Um, yeah it was really refreshing. All the sh-stuff to choose from was definitely a bit overwhelming."

"Well, we're going to be getting you your own 'sh-stuff' pretty soon," Tess teased her, catching her almost accidental cuss. "Probably tomorrow we'll grab everything."

Huh? Tomorrow was a weekday. Surely they weren't going to want to go shopping after working all day.

Tess picked up on her uncertainty, "we took a couple personal days," she nodding her head towards Joel, but not without another look to remind him of what he'd done. He swiftly shrunk a bit in his seat under her glare. He started shoveling food into his mouth to hide the grin fighting its way to the surface in defiance. "Thought it'd be a bit much for you to be on your own while you're still getting used to the place."

While it was meant to be comforting, Ellie couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. They didn't have to do that on her account.

Dinner continued on, with the other three conversing amongst themselves, well more so the two adults talking with Sarah. Joel refused to test the waters yet when it came to Tess and her in return not yet willing to forgive him for such poor manners. Ellie relented from speaking unless spoken to, both out of habit and because the food was just too good and she was starving. Tess made sure to keep refilling her plate before she'd even be finished and was even considering risking getting more.

After dinner, Sarah made it her mission to give Ellie the house tour. She was back to the energetic girl she was mere hours ago. While Sarah sped through the tour in and of itself, she frequently side tracked herself in telling Ellie everything there was to know about her. From her friends, to soccer, to her favorite movies and TV shows. Ellie did her best to keep up, but she was sure she missed some things in translation.

Eventually, Sarah tuckered herself out and excused herself to bed. It was still a school night and she had to get up early. Ellie was going to head to bed herself, eagerly awaiting the Valhalla that was awaiting for her in between sheets and blankets. Before she could climb into the bed though, she heard some humming and an acoustic guitar plucking away from outside her window. She saw the light for the back porch was still on, and her curiosity was winning her over. She feather stepped her way down the stairs and through the kitchen to join Joel outside, a small glass of amber liquid with a large ice cube resting at the small end table beside him.

"You're pretty good," she tested. It wouldn't be good to really engage him in conversation if he was hoping for a private evening with his guitar.

"Thanks," he accepted, warm smile lighting up his features. "Come, sit," he invited, gesturing to the empty seat next to him.

Thinking it may be rude to refuse, she took the offered seat, resting her feat on the chair with the rest of her. "So, uh, where's Tess?"

"Still mad at me. I might wind up sleeping on the couch tonight," he confessed with a laugh.

Ellie frowned, "sorry you got in trouble because of me."

Joel dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Nah, don't be. I'm the one who did it. She'll forget all about it tomorrow, trust me."

"That happen a lot?"

"What her getting pissed at me or threatening to force feed me metals?" he joked.

"Little column a, little column b," Ellie snickered back, her apprehension beginning to wane.

"All the time. Though I haven't gotten fork in a while." Joel began to play along absent-mindedly, really just giving his hands something to do. "Sorry about Sarah taking over showing you the house. When she gets something on her mind, it's near impossible to get her to do anything otherwise."

"No, it's fine. I like Sarah, she's nice," even if she can be a bit intense.

"Yeah, she can be a bit of a handful sometimes. Don't worry, she should calm down in a couple days. She always gets excited when we got people over."

Wait, did I say that last part out loud?

"Yeah, you did."

Fuck.

Joel just laughed to himself, this girl he brought into his home was definitely something else. They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, the guitar filling the void between them nicely. He noticed Ellie begin to sway her head a bit to the sounds he was playing when a thought came to him.

"You said you've never even held a guitar, didn't you?"

Ellie was actually surprised he remembered that small detail. "Uh, yeah I did."

Joel extended his arms towards her, offering the instrument. "Here, give her a go."

Anxiety quickly filled her at the prospect. "Oh, no that's okay. I wouldn't want to break it on you."

"You're not going to break it. Here, take it," he gently persuaded her. When he saw her begin to reach her arms for it, but begin to doubt herself, he placed it in her lap himself. He settled back into his seat, swinging a leg over his knee. "If you do somehow manage to break it, it'll just give me an excuse to finally get a new one."

Now that she had it in her possession, she felt a sense of awe she's never experienced before. She ran her hands along the smooth finished wood of the neck and body, admiring its touch. She didn't know much, or really anything at all, about guitars, but there was no way she could believe that this was old. It felt too good. Why on Earth would he trust her with this? It had to be expensive.

"Play something."

"But I don't know how to play." She thought that was pretty obvious.

"Don't worry about that. Just pluck along, throw whatever you want together."

She didn't immediately comply with the request, first experimenting the strings with a glide of her hand across the fretboard. She could feel the corded texture of the larger strings ripple into her fingertips. After a couple passes up and down the neck, she nervously pressed her thumb down on one of the strings at the base. While she wasn't at all surprised at getting such a dud of a sound, she was still disappointed that it didn't even sound close to what it was supposed to.

"Press down on those strings you got on your left hand," he sagely instructed. She pressed a bit like he said and gave it another go. Still wasn't right, but it was at least better than the last one.

"Bit harder," he guided, reaching his hand onto hers, gently pressing down on her fingers himself to show her the proper pressure. "Try now."

A clean F# rang from the instrument. Ellie gasped at her success. "I did it!"

"You sure did, kiddo," he praised, taking his hand back and letting her continue along on her own.

Ellie went on trying different strings and finger positions. It was clumsy, sure, but Joel couldn't help but feel the pride come over him as he watched her press on, gaining more confidence the more she kept at it. He took note of the look of pure joy on her face, an all knowing smile on his face. Leaning back in his chair, he sipped at his drink, relishing the light burn in his chest.

And despite the mixture of dead notes and imperfect chords, Joel closed his eyes, letting the sounds lull over him. A gentle sway of the head, subtle tap of the foot, he was content in another perfect evening with a six string singing into the night. The only difference, which was even sweeter, was that now he wasn't going to be the only one now to partake in his beloved tradition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, normally I don't talk about my work or anything--mainly because I don't think anyone wants to get bored hearing me nerd out over things like setup, character growth, structure, etc.--I really want to talk about this one. First things first, after what feels like forever, we finally get to see things from Ellie's perspective. Second, jeez that was long. Actually, in my original outline, this chapter was going to be longer in terms of scenes. I cut them about halfway done writing this out, thinking things were going to get too long and I didn't want the piece to wind up feeling claustrophobic and let it breathe. However stupid me goes and writes out the whole shower scene and most of the dinner beat.
> 
> I really was against detailing the shower scene when I put that beat into the outline; arguing to myself that even though I was never going to be using graphic imagery or sexually suggestive prose, that I was still going to feel and come off as pervy or whatever. Ultimately as I started getting some ideas going, I decided that it was too important that we see Ellie in a moment as private as this where she can well and truly honest with herself and wound up writing what feels to be one of the more expanded on scenes in the work so far. I was also going to gloss over dinner as well, really only putting down some of Ellie's habits she picked up over her years and years in different homes. Then I couldn't help but find Joel getting himself into trouble too funny. That and, I know it's almost impossible to pick up, but he totally thought--and was completely wrong--that Tess was implying Ellie was up to something...sensitive in the shower for being in there for what had to at least be an hour or so, thus his 'this isn't dinner talk' interruption. It admittedly is kinda hard to infer, but I couldn't think of a way to more effectively imply it without getting lost in explaining things. Whatever, it was still funny.
> 
> And now for some lightning rounds notes:  
> -Tess is someone who would have really gotten into the 90s, fight me.  
> -It's really hard to feel like you got the right voice for a character considering so much of their character is shaped by the world they live in, so I hope I'm not fucking this all up somehow.  
> -This family is full of complete fucking goobers and I'm loving it.  
> -The response that I've been getting has been awesome. I really appreciate each and every one of you for showing your support and indulging my dumb little idea.
> 
> Alright, well I have no idea how you sat through all these dumb notes, but that's it, they're over now. Maybe. I feel like I could ramble on and nerd out about this kind of stuff for hours. Feel free to reach out though if you have any questions about anything!


	4. The Shopping Trip

Ellie woke feeling more rested than she ever remembered. Not wanting to escape the confines of the bed, she snuggled further into it, pulling the blankets to her face, nuzzling it against her cheek. She knew she wasn't going to lull back to sleep anytime soon, but an extra minute or two wouldn't hurt. Who knew when she'd get another opportunity? While working up the strength to get out of the bed and confront her day, she lets the warm feeling of Joel letting her hold his guitar wash over her. She even got to play it! Sure she wasn't good, but he didn't explode at her when she got things wrong. That was really cool of him. Tentatively, she peeks open an eye, not fully believing she's still in the Millers' home. She's met with the same white walls when she first entered, the nightstand with its rich dark wood. She's still here, it wasn't a dream. This is for real. The room is for real; the shower was for real; dinner was for real; last night was for real; this was all for real! The best day of her life wasn't some fantasy, it really happened. She couldn't keep the smile from her lips for long. She figured if she's going to lie in bed for another couple minutes, she should think of what she can start doing for Joel and Tess, and even Sarah. 

The younger girl was full of energy, sometimes got in your personal space, and would talk your ear off. Joel wasn't kidding. She could tell though that Sarah wasn't trying to be difficult or make her uncomfortable, and that was probably why she felt a little guilty about feeling those emotions yesterday. Here was a kid who was trying her hardest for Ellie to feel included, and she had to get all weirded out about the whole thing. She should probably just let Sarah do whatever Sarah's going to do and just soldier through all the anxiety--and the subsequent guilt. She's just not sure if she can follow through on that, at least for the time being. 

That brought up another thought for Ellie. How long was she going to be here? She's never been in one spot for too long; if her memory held up right, she thinks she's only made it through one whole school year without getting picked up and placed somewhere else. So many homes, so many schools, so many memories jumbled and bleeding together it's frustrating just trying to remember which event happened where. So many strict homes with their house rules, so many absent caretakers she may as well have been living on her own, so many--okay she had to stop. She can feel herself getting angry and frustrated and so many conflicting emotions all at the same time that her head was beginning to hurt.

What was she thinking about before that? Oh right, how to make it up to the Millers, er the Millers and Tess. Ellie wants to make sure she isn't an inconvenience to them; they've already done so much more than the majority of the families she's spent time with. That in and of itself makes her want to do what she can for them and hope it's enough. It's the first time since she was a kid that she felt like she needed to prove to a family they didn't bring in a fuck up. That thought alone scares her. What if she gets attached to them? She's just going to have to do her best to not let that happen. That would be devastating--the moment she gets attached, feels like she belongs and things will work out for once, it gets snatched away.

Okay she needs to get out of bed and stop thinking too far ahead. Remember, Ellie, just ride this out as long as it's going to last, she recites like a mantra. She decides that maybe she should make breakfast for everyone, but then worries that would be encroaching. What if they don't want her going near their food? What if she makes it and it isn't good enough. Normally she's confident enough in her cooking abilities--she definitely had enough practice over the years--but the display Tess gave last night put her skills to shame for sure. Her mouth begins to water at the memory. Shaking her head, she goes back to the task at hand. Maybe take a peek at what's there? They can't get mad if they don't know she was in their fridge.

With her current objective set in her mind, Ellie exited the room, softly paddling down the hallway to the stairs so she doesn't wake anyone. She pauses halfway down the stairs at the voice of Joel down in the kitchen.

"Shoes; her's are completely worn out."

"Got it."

Wait, that was Tess. They were already awake? What time was it even? She normally didn't sleep in, too many chances of someone fucking with your stuff. Were they early risers? Well that certainly complicated things. And...were they talking about her? She knew her shoes were old--she's been wearing that same pair of canvas sneakers for a couple years now, and they were hand-me-downs to begin with--but she didn't think they were that noticeable.

"Read me back what you got so far," Joel spoke.

"Hair care, shower scrub if she wants her own, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shirts, tees and button ups, jeans, socks, I got skirts slash shorts with a question mark, coat, jacket, hoodies, and now shoes."

Were they making a shopping list for her? She remembers both Joel and Tess mentioned it yesterday, but it didn't really click with her that they'd actually go.

"Duh, school supplies."

"Put it down."

Oh right, school. She was going to have to get enrolled into the local high school. She completely forgot she was going to have to go back to school. After she got pulled out of her last home a couple weeks ago, she'd been seeing a private tutor. They weren't very good at their job. She really wasn't looking forward to going back to school either though. Both her and the other kids weren't super warm to each other generally. She didn't see the point in making friends if she was going to be switching soon, and they didn't want to associate with the transfer kid. Normally that'd be fine with her, but that label was hard to shake; often put a target on your back. 

"That reminds me, we got the meeting with her guidance counselor at two tomorrow."

"Yeah, I remember. Anything else you got for the list before I wrap it up?"

"I don't know, I've never been a teenage girl before," Joel said with a laugh. "Go ahead and add anything else you can think of."

"Already on it."

Ellie figures she should make herself known. She can't avoid them forever. She quietly went up a couple steps before going down the rest normally, the sound of her feet making just enough noise to alert at least Joel and Tess, if not Sarah too. She doesn't think Sarah is with them though, she'd probably be going crazy that she can't come with since she had school today. Rounding the foot of the stairs, she saw that she was correct in her assumption that Sarah was not there with them. Where could she be then?

Joel and Tess were sitting in the same seats they were at dinner last night. Joel craned his head to look behind him before he addressed her. "Oh, hey, she's alive," he teased with a matching smirk.

Before he turned back around, Tess chucked the pen in her hand at him, hitting him square in the collarbone. "Can it. It was a long day. Not to mention you kept her up with that guitar of yours."

"Hey, we were having fun-"

"What'd I say?" 

Uh oh, she had that tone again.

"Can it?"

"And what are you not doing?"

A heavy silence that Ellie found to be a bit nerve-wracking fell over the table.

"Good," Tess turned her attention to Ellie. Oh no. "Sleep alright, Ellie?" she asked with a wariness that Ellie finds a bit discomforting. What was this woman, bipolar or something?

"Uh, yeah. Slept like a rock," she joins them at the table, keeping her hands under it. She's not sure if they're shaking or not. "Where's Sarah? Not a morning person?"

"Sarah's at school, kiddo. Must've not heard her trampling around this morning."

Wait, just how long did she sleep? Why didn't they wake her? She was sure they'd want to get their shopping done earlier rather than later.

Tess gets up and heads towards the microwave. She presses a few buttons and runs it. "Coffee, Ellie? OJ? Apple?"

She was giving her a choice? Normally if she was even given the opportunity for breakfast she was just dropped something in front of her and told to take it. That or she'd just buy whatever she wanted if she actually had money on her. "Uh, apple juice sounds nice, thank you." 

Truth be told she wasn't a big fan of coffee. Too bitter and just...ick. She'd drink it however it was given to her if that was what she had to work with, and if that was the case she liked it much better with lots of cream or milk and sugar. Orange juice wasn't that bad, but the acidity sometimes made her stomach hurt later. She really liked apple juice though. She thought she should take advantage of the opportunity while she could.

"Uh...what time is it?" Ellie asked as Tess placed the filled glass in front of her. 

Joel stood from his seat and made for the refrigerator. "About eleven. You said yourself that you slept like a rock. Figured we should let you sleep in."

Holy crap that was super late for her.

"Tess, why don't you sit down. You made breakfast earlier, I'll take this one. Ellie, how do you like your eggs?" Joel directed to her, reaching into the fridge.

"I don't care, whatever's easiest I guess."

"Well, I'm not making anything until I get the word. So what'll it be? Scrambled, sunny side, over easy?"

"Um, scrambled?" She wasn't used to all this attention on her.

"Comin' right up. How hungry are you?"

She was about to say not very, trying not to be any more of a bother than she already was, but her stomach grumble betrayed her before she could get the word in. God that was embarrassing.

Joel just chuckled at the noise. "I guess quite a bit then. Sit tight, it'll be done soon." He cracked three eggs into a bowl and added some milk to it before whipping the concoction with a fork. While he was waiting for the skillet to heat up, he poured another cup of coffee for Tess and himself. When the microwave beeped, signalling it was done heating whatever was inside, Joel opened and closed the door, making sure the noise wouldn't return.

"So, we were going to head over to the mall today, get you set up with the things you're going to need. Sound like a plan, Ellie?" Tess asked, taking a sip from her cup.

"Uh, yeah, sounds fine with me."

Joel returned with the plate of eggs, fluffy and light. They looked really good. He placed the salt and pepper shakers in front of her, followed by a ketchup bottle and a plate of bacon from the microwave. "Then, we'll head down after I finish cleaning the gutters. Gotta get that done while I got the time," Joel said, returning to his seat.

That was it! "I could help you with that, if you want. Got to earn my keep somehow, right?" Ellie joked, or hoped it came off as a joke. She shyly took the shakers, sprinkling a little salt, but a decent amount of pepper. She suddenly wished that didn't seem too weird.

"You don't have to do that, Ellie, I can do it just fine."

"Oh, just let her help, Joel. She wants to prove she's a big girl then let her. Plus it'll get done quicker with the two of you on it."

Finally someone saw things her way! Oh damn, these eggs were good.

"Alright," Joel conceded with a sigh. "We'll head out when you finish up. I'm gonna head up then, get myself ready. You got things down here, Tess?"

"Yeah I'll take care of it, you go and get ready."

Joel snagged a couple pieces of bacon before exiting the kitchen, leaving Ellie alone with Tess.  
Conversation flowed between them a bit easier than Ellie expected if she was being honest. She was asked if she knew what kind of classes she wanted to take that weren't the required ones. She wasn't too sure though. First off, she didn't know what kinds of electives they offered. She thought about trying something from the music program when Tess suggested it, but she had never been in a music class before. She wondered if they had some kind of writing class. She liked when they got to write dumb little stories in her English classes in the past.

When she finished eating, Tess went to grab her plate for her, but for once she managed to beat one of the adults in doing something for her. Instead of fighting her on it like she expected, Tess simply smirked with a shake of her head. As she went upstairs, she took a notepad with her, which Ellie assumed to be the list she was discussing with Joel, making sure to pick up the pen she threw at him earlier.

After Ellie finished cleaning up in the kitchen, she returned to the room she was staying in, changing into the clothes she was wearing yesterday. She only had two different sets of clothes, and if she was going to be out in public later she figured she should have the cleanest thing on then instead of it getting it all sweaty. That and long sleeves didn't seem like such a great idea for outside work. When she went down ready to help with the gutters, Joel was sitting on the couch waiting for her.

"All ready?" He had to notice she was wearing the same clothes as the day before, but she was glad he didn't comment on it. She was self-conscious enough as it was.

"Yeah, let's get those gutters sparkling clean."

He actually laughed at her dumb joke. "Let's get to it then."

Once they were outside, Ellie was mentally applauding herself for going with the short sleeves. It was fucking hot out. Past-her was definitely looking out for future-her. Joel suggested that he go up on the roof and grab out all the leaves and she bring up the buckets to him. She insisted that she be the one that goes up, in her mind she should be the one that does most of the work. In the end she was able to reach a compromise with him. She’d take the front of the house--since it's closer to the ground--and he’d take the back. Ellie really wanted to do the whole thing, but she could tell Joel wouldn't budge on the issue. 

Once she was on the roof, she made sure she was on steady feet. It wouldn't do her, or them, any good if she wound up falling.

"Careful now, Ellie, don't get too close to the edge there," she heard Joel call to her from his half of the roof. "If you get nervous, don't worry. I can take care of it. Just don't go getting yourself hurt over it."

"Got it." There was absolutely no way she was going to back out, especially after she managed to get this far. If that happened, who knew when she'd ever be able to help out around the house. She'd never begin to make a dent in the debt she owed him. 

Carefully, she made her way to a crawl, lowering her center of gravity. Slowly, she dragged the bucket for the leaves with her as she crawled to the edge. There were a surprising amount of leaves building up in there, given it was only mid September. When she'd finish picking out a section of the gutter, she'd take the rag from her back pocket and rub out the dirt and gravel out of the gutter, clearing away the obstacles from letting the device drain properly. 

After about a half hour, she was nearly done when she heard Joel call out to her like he had every few minutes to check up on her. "Alright, Ellie, I'm done on my side. How you holding up?"

"Almost," she called back. "Just a small patch left here."

"Okay, I'm gonna make my way over to you."

As she finished wiping down the last of the grime, she heard Joel walk up behind her, careful not to startle her. When she finished, she stood and turned towards him. He was inspecting her work, satisfied with how everything turned out. Good, she was worried she didn't do a good enough job.

"Good work, kiddo. Came out better than mine."

"Really?" she beamed at his praise. No one ever congratulated her on a job well done before. If she did alright she usually just got an okay, or got yelled at if it wasn't done to their standards.

"Really," he confirmed, a proud smile lifting her spirits. "Look," he gestured to the bow clean gutters she worked on. "Don't you think that came out pretty good?"

"I wouldn't know, I’ve never actually done this before," she gave with a nervous laugh.

"Seriously? You seemed pretty sure of yourself that you knew what you were doing."

"Well how hard can it be? Just clear out all the crap blocking up the water. Wasn't hard."

"Well you could've fooled me. You're a natural, kiddo."

That meant a lot coming from him. For once someone actually encouraged her instead of putting her down. She smiled, content at looking at her work. It was pretty good, she supposed. While she was still admiring her work with a new found perspective, she felt Joel wrap an arm around her shoulder in a side hug. At first, she jumped a bit at the sudden touch, but quickly found herself lean a bit into him, content in its comfort.

"Let's get down before we get sunburnt. I'll take the buckets down, and keep the ladder steady for you."

"Sounds like a plan."

With a gentle, reassuring shake of his arm before unwrapping from her, he grabbed the filled buckets and proceeded down the ladder. After he was done, she followed him. He kept his promise to hold the ladder for her, which she was grateful for. It was a bit high up and she probably would have freaked if it started shifting.

"We should head in and get ready. Tess would get real mad if we went to the mall like this," he said with a light laugh.

She joined him in his laughter. "Yeah, I wouldn't blame her. I'd be mad at myself."

"Then let's hit the showers. We'll meet you downstairs when you're all ready."

\--

When they got to the mall, Ellie was taken aback by its size. They got there relatively quick--she made sure not to spend too much time in the shower this time. As much as she tried not to, she couldn't help but get a bit excited over the prospect of getting some new stuff. Everything she's ever gotten has been a hand-me-down, something that was once someone else's. These were going to be only hers.

They already bought a bunch of shirts and jeans. Some of the shirts were a bit big, but didn't look bad on her. Joel and Tess said it was nice to have something to grow into. It was crazy to her that they were thinking of the future so soon. They got her a bunch of band tees, some others were plain, and a couple had some generic designs on them that she thought looked cool. They also got her some warmer clothes for when the weather turned. She even got some nice hoodies that were super comfortable. She didn't want to think about how much money they were blowing on her. That thought would've made her feel even more bad than she already was with all the attention she was getting. They just left a department store with some flannel shirts and a nice black coat suited for the winter, now headed to a shoe store at Joel's suggestion. She was quite a bit impressed with his ability to speak so normal even though he was carrying almost all of the bags. She wanted to take some, but he was insistent on holding onto them for her.

As they entered the shoe store, they were met with some new age punk rock music from the speakers and a twenty something guy standing in front of the counter, wearing a company t-shirt and his jeans rolled up into shorts. Ellie took note of his cool tattoos on his arms and legs, the colored ones were really vibrant and the regular ones with nice shading.

"How we all doing today? Who we looking for, you? Those Chucks look like they've seen better days."

He was pointing at her, and while he came off as very friendly, getting put on the spot flustered her a bit.

"Yeah, we're looking for her," Joel came to her defense. "We're probably going to need a few pairs."

"Well I can hook you up with that, follow me and I'll get you to the Converse."

Her slight embarrassment was forgotten the moment she was face to face with the wall of shoes. They had so many colors! High tops, low tops; they had them all. She grabbed at one, running her fingers into the material, unsure as to how new shoes actually felt.

"What are we like a ladies six, six and a half?"

Huh? Was he talking to her? She looked up and saw the three adults waiting for her response. Truth be told she had no idea what her shoe size was. She just wore whatever the hell someone gave her. "Um, yeah. That sounds right." She was amazed at how convincing she sounded even to herself.

"Hang tight, I'll be right back out with those for you."

The man went into the back, now that he had a mission. She was thankful he gave her an out with the size. She was too embarrassed over the fact she didn't know what size she was. She started glancing at the wall, eyeing the red and the grey colors. They looked pretty neat, but she'd probably just go with the regular black ones. She was told it went with pretty much every outfit, whatever that meant. Just as quick as he went into the back, he came out with a bunch of shoes, balancing them like a circus act. He had two in each hand and another on his head. Ellie smiled at the display, this guy had too much fun with his job.

"Sorry, but I fancy myself an overachiever. Got you a couple extra colors and styles. Couple different sizes too so we can narrow down what we're going to need. Can you grab that for me? Got my hands full," the salesman said leaning his head forward. She grabbed it off his head and took a seat to try them on. He squatted down and placed the remaining shoe boxes by her feet. "So those you got in your hands are in a women's six, but Converse can fit a little weird so I got you this one," he tapped on one of the boxes "in a six and a half. I also pulled out the red high tops, and the grey low tops for you. Figured you might want to have some other options to go with." Woah, was he a mind reader or something? "Those are both in a six and a half. And I grabbed you these slip on Vans, they're really popular right now. When I was in high school I wore these all the time. Had a bad habit of sleeping in and had to get ready super quick," he laughed at his own embarrassing memory. It was a bit funny, she could definitely relate to it. "Those are in a seven. Vans typically run smaller than Chucks, so they should be alright. I'll let you try some stuff on and check back in with you to see how they feel."

He got up and left them some breathing room, remaining in ear shot in case they needed him. Ellie was thankful for the space. While she was happy to have someone near her own age be as approachable as he was, she really wasn't used to having so many people's eyes on her at the same time. She switched the sneakers out as fast as she could--she really didn't want anyone to see the poor condition her socks were in. They were all full of holes and basically holding on for dear life. The black sneakers were about the same size as her old ones, if a bit stiffer than before. She chalked that up to them actually being unworn.

"How do they feel, Ellie?" Tess asked.

"They feel alright," she replied, not wanting to inconvenience them any further.

"Take a walk in 'em," Joel suggested. "They might be tighter when you move around."

She did as he requested. They definitely stiffened up a bit more as she walked in a circle. It made walking a bit more difficult.

The sales guy had to have noticed her unusual gait because he was on them pretty quick. "Those don't seem super comfortable on you. They tight?"

He was talking directly to her? Almost everyone so far today talked to Joel or Tess. Didn't he realize that they were the ones paying for everything and not her?

"A little," she admitted. It was admittedly a little easier to talk to him given he was younger than all the other salespeople today that she did interact with.

"Mind if I feel?"

Feel what? Her foot? What was he going to learn from that? Figuring it was easier to just let him do what he was going to do, she complied with his request. It was a bit weird having his hand grope around her foot, feeling how it fit in the shoe.

"Seems to me that your foot's crushed in there," he said rubbing his hand over his chin. "That must be hurting you quite a bit, huh?"

Again, why was he talking to her? Joel and Tess knew about this stuff way more than she did. "I mean I guess?"

He hopped back up to his feet. "Well you're the one wearing them. If they don't feel right you gotta say something," he teased. She supposed he had a point about that. Maybe she should speak up a bit more. Joel and Tess didn't seem like they were much like her prior foster parents at all, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. It'd at least make things easier for them. "Here, why don't I head back and grab some bigger sizes? Go ahead and try those other pairs I brought out. I think we're going to need at least a full size up, but you never know. I'll be right back."

So now here she was trying on the red and the grey colors. They looked pretty cool on her, or at least she thought so. They were at least a bit easier to get on. Her foot didn't feel as constrained as before. Just as she was telling Joel that she liked them when he asked, the employee came back out with a box in each hand.

"Okay so I grabbed the black Chucks in a seven and the half size up. How are those ones you got on feeling?"

"Better, still a bit stiff." She was reluctant to say tight, she still wasn't sure how they were supposed to feel.

"Here, let me…" he trailed off as he went back to feeling her foot. It didn't feel nearly as awkward as the first time he did so now that she knew what to expect. "Yeah, that's still a bit too snug. Here, try this," he said, pulling out one of the shoes he brought out. "I think these are going to be the winners."

She swapped her feet into the new pair brought out, eager to see how proper fitting shoes were supposed to feel. Wow, that was like night and day. There was some stiffness, sure, but she could actually stretch her whole foot out in there. That was incredible!

"There's the smile I was looking for! I think the sevens are where we need to be." He felt again, this time much more quickly than before. "Yupp, that's the size. Take a walk around the store." 

This time when she walked, it didn't feel like she could possibly fall over if she stepped wrong, and her toes weren't squishing with every step. Drawing out her little trial walk, she took a whole lap around the store. When she went to turn back to the others, she saw Joel and Tess speaking with the salesman, keeping their voices low. At first she was a bit self conscious with not only what they could possibly be saying about her, but also with all three sets of eyes on her. Then she saw Joel and Tess laugh a bit and the store employee smirk a bit at himself. 

He probably just told them a joke or something. No need to get so paranoid, Ellie thought to herself, dismissing the odd feeling she got thinking they were talking behind her back.

"Those definitely look like they're much more comfortable on you. Feet hurt at all?"

"No, not really." This time it was the truth. "They're still a bit stiff though."

"Yeah, that's cause they're new. They're going to loosen up on you as you wear them. How old are you?"

Why did that matter? "Fourteen."

"Yeah you got at least one more growth spurt in you still. That's good because those are canvas, so they'll grow with you a bit. They'll get about a half size bigger, so you should be good with those for about the whole year." Wow, she had no idea there was so much to know about shoes. She always thought they were just things you put on your feet and that was the end of it. "So I heard you liked those red and grey ones I brought out too. How about I go and grab those in the bigger sizes?” She shyly nodded her head at the request. "Alright, I'll take the small ones back and be out with the bigger ones."

Ellie reckoned she should test the waters with her realization earlier, "Think I can try on the ones he left?" 

"Yeah, go ahead and knock yourself out, kiddo."

That was surprisingly easier than she thought it would be. They looked pretty nice too, but they were a bit tight. She liked she didn't have to tie them.

"'Ey, now we're getting it. Take advantage of it while you can, it's free to try on, so go crazy," the salesman joked as he left the back, placing the new boxes on the counter. "They're probably a bit small though, so let me grab the half size up."

She was glad he was so helpful, just knowing what was going to be right and what was going to not work out. It certainly made things easier for her without her having to speak up too much. She still wasn't too comfortable with doing that as much as she probably should, but hey, baby steps. She did feel a bit bad for him having to constantly go back and forth to get the proper sizes in everything.

Just as he was coming back out for her replacements, she saw Tess' eyes go wide looking at the boots they had. "They got Doc Martens? I haven't worn these since high school."

"Yeah, we got 'em. Not many do. Hands down my favorite boot. Now that we got the young lady's things figured out, want me to pull some out for you? Like I said it's free to try on!"

Ellie was starting to fall into his ease and enthusiasm. She hoped Tess would join in. She really didn't want everyone to only think about her. When she saw Tess about to refuse, she decided to make her voice heard again. "Go for it. I can't be the only one that gets to have fun today."

"She's got a point there," the salesman quipped.

She saw Tess' shoulders ease with a smirk in defeat at Ellie's insistence. "Oh what the hell? Nine?"

"Coming right up. How about you, sir?" he was pointing at Joel. 

Ellie looked up at Joel, not wanting to say anymore, hoping instead she could convince him with her eyes. It must have worked because he just softened under her gaze. "Eh, I could use some new work boots. Got anything with steel toe in a twelve?"

"Got you, man. Be right back."

The two sat down, bewildered that they were now shopping for themselves instead of her, but she was adamant that they remember they need to take care of themselves too.

"You're killing us, kid," Joel chuckled from his chest. Normally that would've upset her, but in this moment right now, she was just glad she was able to help them in a small way; let them be happy too. "We're supposed to be looking at stuff for you, not us."

"Well if you need things now, might as well get it while we're out right? Instead of coming back later?"

"She's got a point, Tex. Nothing wrong with a little self-indulgence now and again."

Her point exactly. She was stoked they were actually listening to her, instead of dismissing her. She decided to let the adults talk amongst themselves. She didn't want to get in their way. Instead she started taking note of the different socks and backpacks they had on display. She was amazed at the quality of everything. She heard Tess laugh at a joke the salesman made. She's pretty sure he said something about letting out your 'inner rebel.' She could just feel Tess lean over to Joel when she said she liked the guy. In the end, they got their stuff too on top of her's. 

When the sales guy went to the back yet again to show her some socks he assured her she was going to love, she apologized for him having to keep going back and grabbing stuff. He dismissed her apology, sarcastically quipping, "oh woah is me actually having to do my job and make a young lady happy. Such torture." That earned a laugh from Tess. The older woman amended her earlier statement saying she really liked this guy. Boy was he right though when he showed her those socks. They were so soft! He also had ones that had crazy colors and fun designs on them. So now she had a ton of new socks and four brand new pairs of shoes and a new black backpack that was really tough and would last her a good while.

"So it looks like we're all pretty much set. You want to wear those out?"

She could wear them right now?! Hot damn this place was kick ass. She eagerly looked to Joel and Tess asking in silent permission.

"Don't look at us, it's your call," Joel teased. He knew she wanted to get into those new black sneakers.

She immediately went to flip out her old shoes to her new ones, content in her new found ability to walk normally.

"Well it looks like you're not going to need these anymore," the employee said holding her old sneakers. "Want me to get rid of 'em for you?"

Truth be told she had gotten a lot of mileage out of those, so she was a little sad to see them go. She accepted his offer though, reasoning that she had no need for something she had no use for anymore.

The employee started inspecting her old shoes for a moment, a strange look on his face. "Well you probably figured this out already, but still I wanted to congratulate you on graduating out of kids' sizes."

What? She was given a kid's shoe? That explained why they never fit right. She managed to catch Joel and Tess making an odd face from the corner of her eye before they shared a look that she couldn't quite tell what they were trying to communicate to the other. Well, what's done is done. She can't go back now, only forward.

After they finished paying, the salesman rounded the corner of the counter, holding the bags in front of her. "Alright, so I got a big rule around here. Who's shoes are these?"

"Mostly mine?" She had no idea where he was going with this.

"Right, and who paid for 'em?"

"They did." Now she was seeing where this was headed.

"Right again, so do your folks a solid, and carry the bags for them, 'kay? Lord knows your old man could use the help there," he laughed as he handed the bags over to her with a nudge to her arm with his elbow.

"You got it!" She was excited to finally carry some of the bags today. Joel made it a point to carry pretty much everything earlier, and Tess didn't make things better joking that he needed to stay in shape somehow. Couldn't they see she just wanted to help? They already did so much for her, she just wanted to return the favor however she could. She also couldn't help but feel weird when he mistook Joel and Tess as her parents. It was a different type of weird though, one she didn't mind too much. She was surprised neither Joel, nor Tess, corrected him.

"My name's Mike, or Mikey, whichever you prefer. I run the place, so you ever need anything in the future, I'm always here."

Joel quickly went for the younger man's hand. "Joel. Thanks for all your help, Mike, we appreciate it."

After Joel, Tess went in. "Tess. You've been a big help."

"Don't mention it, just what I do. Still jealous though you got to see Bowie live. That's one experience I don't think I'll ever get."

Bowie? What's a Bowie? Was that some kind of magician or something? Brushing off her confusion, Ellie focused on feeling a bit left out of the pleasantries, so in the most grown up thing she thinks she's ever done without being forced to, she shyly extended her own arm out. "Ellie, thanks a bunch, Mikey."

He proudly shook her hand, before holding his hand up. "Not a problem! While there's nothing wrong with a nice handshake, I prefer high fives. Can I get one?"

She smiled a bit to herself at the childish request. She figured though that as old as you get, you'll never outgrow being a kid sometimes. She went up for it, but didn't connect that well.

"Ah, we can do better than that! One more," Mike enthusiastically went for a second go at it. Ellie was infected with the same feeling and really went for it this time. A satisfying crack as their hands met resounded in the store. She could see why he liked high fives so much. "There we go! Awesome." 

The music playing in the speakers changed to some 70's or 80's pop music. She didn't really care too much for that type of music, but this was a bit different. She actually really liked the groove going on. "Ah, sweet! Speak of the devil, one of my favorites too," she heard Mike say, looking back towards Tess.

Was Bowie a musician? Maybe that was what they were talking about.

"Same, this was one of the songs he played when I saw him."

"Stop making me more jealous," Mike said laughing at the exaggerated plea.

Ellie felt like she spoke too much already, so she just resigned herself to listen to the music while the adults joked with each other one last time. She felt her foot tap along to the beat, and zoned in on the singer's voice. It was really dynamic, and the lyrics were pretty cool. She really liked the line that was just sung, 'we can be us, just for one day.' She felt like that pretty much summed up her whole experience today. While Joel and Tess got to be themselves all the time, today--even if it wasn't fully--she got to be more herself than she ever has in the past. Never before did she ever feel comfortable putting herself first, let how she well and truly felt come forward on her own. It probably wasn't like other kids, but dammit it was something she was happy she got to experience today.

After a final round of goodbyes, they left the shoe store with a wave to Mikey, which was returned.

"I can't believe we wound up getting things for ourselves," Joel lamented, disappointed in himself for indulging in a personal pleasure.

"Oh relax, Tex," Tess teased, bumping his hip with her own. "You said you needed them. Don't get all gloomy. Ellie and I got somewhere to go. Go and find something to keep you busy, while we take care of business."

"Where you headed to? Why can't I come?"

Ellie was with Joel on this one. What the hell did Tess have planned?

"Lady things, and just leave it at that."

Both Ellie and Joel were confused at that, but eventually Joel saw through the charade and got all flustered. Seriously, how could he figure it out and not her?

"Er," he masked his discomfort with a cough, "yeah you two go do that. I'll find something to keep me busy."

"Good," Tess looked real pleased with herself. "C'mon, Ellie, let's let the man do what he's gonna do. We're on a mission now."

Now she was being led somewhere where she had no idea what the destination was. She kind of wished Joel was still tagging along with them--aside from the brief moment this morning--she hadn't spent any time alone with Tess, and she can be scary. It had to be important though, and that gave her enough purpose to keep her mouth shut and just let Tess guide them to where they needed to be. When they stopped in front of a store, Ellie immediately flushed.

"Are you serious?"

She took her to a ladies underwear store.

"Yeah I'm serious. You're going to need this stuff and I figured you wouldn't want papa bear to get all weird on ya. It's a lot easier when you got someone who actually knows their way around a bra strap to help with these sorts of things."

This was so embarrassing. She guessed it was a little less embarrassing without Joel here freaking out about the...risqué nature of the items inside. This was going to be rough.

While they were inside, Ellie did her absolute best to not be intimidated by the clothes, or lack thereof, and the figures of the mannequins. There was no way she was going to get self conscious over a bunch of oversized plastic dolls. Okay, maybe a little, but it was so unfair. She hated being in the fitting room, things either were too small and pinched her back, or too big and didn't do anything except make her look goofy. Why was this so hard?! When she was finally ready to give up, Tess managed to find a couple things that fit her pretty well. She didn't understand why she had to get a bunch of different colors and...designs. When she brought it up, Tess just laughed and told her that sometimes you need a little something private to lift your spirits, whatever the hell that meant. As she was trying on the different selections they picked out, or more accurately Tess picked out, they got to talking a bit. It felt super weird to be talking to someone through a door, double so for her state of undress. On the other hand though, she was glad for the distraction. It would make things go by a little faster at least, and she wouldn't be stuck in her head about how uncomfortable being in the cramped fitting room added to the already terrible awkwardness of the whole situation.

Ellie found she liked talking to Tess. She didn't really know much about her, other than the small snippets that were shared yesterday. Tess could be really funny, and she told her a bunch of pun jokes that she was assured Joel would get a kick out of. She liked how confident the older woman was, hoping she could be like that some day. It was a little hard to find common ground with her at first. She wasn't into things like comic books or movies too much, and Ellie was sure she wasn't into video games so she didn't even bother bringing that up. They managed to land on something with music though. Ellie was enamored with Tess' stories of going to concerts when she was younger. She had a very broad range when it came to taste, something Ellie could relate to considering she was willing to listen to anything she could get her hands on. While she didn't know the names of any of the bands Tess was listing off, when she was describing the music, Ellie could tell they were probably very cool. She was pretty sure Tess was pulling her leg though when she told her one member from one of her favorite bands quit so he could hunt aliens. That was too dumb, no way. She did get excited though when Tess promised to show her a surprise when they got back to the Millers' home.

Ellie was relieved when they finally had all that was needed from the store. She was glad for the one on one time she had with Tess though. She felt she understood the older woman better than she had before. She wasn't as afraid of her as she was before either, which was a plus. They did stop in one more store before they went to rendezvous with Joel. They picked up a bunch of really nice shower supplies for herself. They smelt like apricot, but it wasn't super potent.

When they met back with Joel, they both spotted an extra bag in his hand. How on Earth was he able to fit another one in there? Tess scrunched her face at the sight. "The hell you pick up from Spencer's?"

"Oh, well, I had some extra time on my hands after I got some business of my own done. Figured I should take a trip down memory lane. Hadn't been in there since I was a kid. I uh," he somehow managed to rub his neck despite all the bags. "I quickly remembered why I don't go in there no more."

Tess immediately laughed at his confession. Ellie was sure they had people staring at them now with the sound resounding through what felt like the whole mall. "Aw did the big floppy dicks scare you, Joel? Show the nice police woman where they touched you."

"God dammit, Tess," he mumbled. This was quickly getting out of hand. "Come on, not now."

"What? It's hilarious," she simmered down when he shot her a look. "Alright, alright. I'll leave it be."

"Thank you," he breathed in relief. "So when I was on my way out," he paused when Tess started snickering again, but pressed on, "I saw they had buy one get one on band shirts. So I got ya these." He held the bag out towards Ellie. Didn't he get enough stuff for her?

She reached into the bag and pulled out a white t-shirt, the front had a guy--or at least she assumed it was a guy--with long red hair looking down. He had a red and blue lightning bolt painted on his face. She was so mesmerized with the art on the shirt, she almost missed at the bottom it spelled 'Bowie' in all caps with the same lightning bolt pattern in the middle of the 'o.' This was so awesome!

"He's the singer of that song from the shoe store. You looked like you enjoyed it, so I thought of you when I saw the shirt."

That was really nice of him. They already got her so much stuff and yet he took note of something she liked and made sure she got something from it. Curious as to what else he got her, she reached in and pulled out the other shirt from the bag. It was a black bodied t-shirt with long white sleeves, but they didn't go down as far as regular long sleeves. She thinks she remembers them being called 'baseball tees.' The picture was in black and white of an older man staring into the camera with an acoustic guitar in his lap. The top of the picture read 'Cash' in all caps as well. Didn't Joel mention someone named that once?

"That's Johnny Cash. He's the guy who did the song you shared with me on your tape player when we first met."

Woah, this was the guy? This...this was really nice. Of all the things she got today, these two little t-shirts had to be the best things she got all day. She fought the feeling welling up in her eyes by giving Joel the biggest smile she thinks she's ever made. "Thanks, Joel."

He smiled like he did when they met in the soft room, it made her feel special when he looked at her like that. "Don't mention it, babygirl."

That made her feel even more special than she already did. She never felt like she mattered this much to another human being before.

"What, and nothing for me?" Tess playfully complained. Ellie was actually glad for the interruption. She was afraid her eyes would lose the battle had it gone on any longer.

"Jeez, Tess. No, of course not. Not with you being a pain in my ass all day, especially now."

Ellie could hear the woman still when she leaned in Joel's ear and whispered "I can do more than that, big guy."

Okay, that was something she didn't want to dwell on. She distracted herself by committing the picture of Johnny Cash looking back at her to memory before folding up the t-shirts and placing them back into the bags.

She heard Joel choke and cough, trying to compose himself. "Alright, well we got all we came here for. Got you set up with everything we can think of. If there's something we missed, we can always come back another time. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready to head home."

Ellie was excited to get back to the house, so she was more than happy to get going. The mall was starting to gain a lot more traffic in it than when they first got here. She never liked it when there were too many people around.

Easy conversation filled the truck on the way back. Tess threw together a playlist of some of the bands she told her about earlier. Ellie liked the stories Tess was telling her about the bands and more concert stories. Joel even told her a couple stories when he used to play shows when he was in high school. Ellie was enamored with him describing what it's like to play on stage to a live audience. It seemed nerve-wracking, but he assured her there was nothing like it.

When they got back to the house, Ellie enthusiastically took as many bags as she could possibly pick up to put everything away in the room she was staying in. Joel and Tess made sure to bring up the stragglers. Sarah was already home from school, sitting at the kitchen table with some books in front of her. She tried to help, wanting to see all the stuff Ellie got today, but Joel refused her, ignoring her huff at the denial. She had homework to finish, and that was that. Ellie promised to show some of her things off after she was done. She never had anyone so interested in her things before, at least without the intent to steal something. She'd have to work through that uncomfortable feeling when the time came, but she argued to herself that if Sarah did swipe something off her, she knew right where to go to get it back. Putting everything down in the room, she quickly went to organizing everything to place in their proper destinations.

"Well, we'll let you get to putting everything where you want it. We're going to start dinner up, okay?" Joel informed her.

"Yeah, I'm on it." Before the two adults could leave the room, and before Ellie could stop herself, she beelined to them and wrapped them in a tight hug. "Thanks so much for today."

"Not a problem, kiddo."

"Nothing but a thing, sweetie."

She unwrapped from them, making it her mission to get to work. She was beginning to have that battle again and she didn't want them around to see it. 

Before they left the room, Tess spoke up. "When you're done here, come downstairs. I got that surprise I promised to show you."

"You got it!"

Spurred by another motivation to get to cleaning up, she went to work, blazing through getting the shirts grouped together first. When they left the room, closing the door on their way out, Ellie felt herself losing the battle she was fighting with her eyes. She tried to keep it together, but when she got to the two shirts Joel bought for her, she pulled them to her chest, uncaring about them possibly getting wrinkled. She supposed she could lose this fight for now, she was alone and there would be no one to harp on her for letting her emotions get the better of her. Despite the negative connotation that she usually associated with crying, she smiled. She never felt so happy before. "Screw yesterday," she mumbled, "today's the best day ever."

After she finished putting all her things away, taking advantage of the dresser and the closet space she was given, she made her way downstairs to see what Tess had in store for her.

"Ah, good, you're here," Tess said, seeing Ellie in the kitchen. Sarah was still working on her homework. Her head was in her hands, mumbling something about how math was invented by the devil. It couldn't be that bad. Joel did his best to encourage her while preparing the meat, but Sarah was in her own world right now. "Follow moi," Tess instructed, drying off her hands.

Ellie followed Tess through Joel's little home office. They went down some stairs to the basement. Wow it was so big! She took note of the washer and dryer down here, now she didn't have to depend on anyone to have clean clothes.

"Ta da," Tess gave with a playful mystique as she opened a door to another room.

"Woah…" Ellie was taken aback by the well furnished room. Framed posters of different album covers decorated the white walls. At the far end of the room was a sound system, nice headphones, their wires leading to a...a record player! The far wall had a bookshelf built into it that had tons of the large squares that were meant to be played on the device.

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Tess nudged her side.

"This is so awesome! Look at all those records!"

"Yeah, I built quite a collection over the years. Many of them were from when I was your age, but they all still play really nice." Tess started to rummage through one of the stacks on the wall, flipping through for a specific one in mind. "Here we are," she pulled out a record and displayed it for Ellie to see. It looked exactly like the white shirt Joel got her. "This is the album that you got on your shirt. This one is really good. And this," she pulled another with a black and white cover and the same guy making a face, doing some odd gesture with his hands, "is the album the song you heard at the shoe store is on, but my personal favorite of David Bowie is this one." She pulled another record from the wall, the cover was of a painting with black and dark purple in the background and a blonde man on a street corner. ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust,’ it read. "You're free to come in here and listen to whatever you want. Let me show you how to work it."

There was something special about the way you had to work a record player, Ellie found. It felt much more personal than just hitting the play button on her Walkman. Even though the technology was old, the fact that they were somehow able to groove sound into the vinyl seemed like some sort of future shit. It was incredible! And she could use it whenever she wanted!? Best day ever indeed. She started browsing the shelves to see what all the different choices were. She saw some of the bands that Tess was telling her about earlier, and some she never heard of before. She saw ones that said 'blink-182,' 'Pink Floyd,' 'Black Sabbath,' 'Nirvana,' and so many more. She was sure to check all these out!

While caught up in flipping through the large squares of colorful covers and musical goodness that was inside them, she felt a cold object nudge her in the arm. Ellie jumped a bit at the sudden feeling, turning quickly to see Tess holding out something for her. "This is for you too."

Ellie took it apprehensively, not sure what the woman could be giving her. Upon closer inspection, she recognized it as a phone. It was an older model, but was so much more up to date than the little prepaid thing Kathy gave her. "Oh, Tess...I can't take this, this is too much," she tried to hand the device back to her, but Tess pushed it back into Ellie's possession.

"Was my old one. All it's been doing since I upgraded is gathering dust. Least now it's being useful. Plus, Joel already got it set up. Was what I had him do when we had our girl time earlier. So it's already paid for, which means you gotta have it."

Ellie was overcome with a tight feeling in her chest. They just kept giving and giving, with what felt like getting nothing in return. Her debt was rising each second, and she'd gladly spend her whole life paying it back if that's what it took. These were the best people she's ever stayed with, let alone even met. She didn't understand though why they were so nice to her. She never did anything to deserve this kind treatment from them.

"I also couldn't stand the thought of you being unable to reach us should anything come up. Color me paranoid with all the years on the force. It's already got my work and cell number, Joel's number, the house phone, Kathy's numbers, and if you can't get any of us, Joel's brother Tommy's numbers." Tess smirked to herself, the teasing look Ellie was starting to associate solely with her. "And you can play music on it. I got a lot on there already, so when you're supposed to be in bed you can continue refining your tastes. Don't say you're not gonna do that either now, I know you are. Did it all the time myself when I was your age. Just be sneaky about it, alright?"

Ellie was so moved by the gesture, she forgot how to breathe for a second there. "How can I ever repay you for this?"

Tess knelt over to her level. "Well you can start by just being you." She poked Ellie's nose affectionately. "And you can finish it by forgetting all about 'repayment.' It's a gift, not a loan. Nothing's expected back, okay?"

"Okay." It wasn't, not really, but she let the matter go for now. She didn't want to ruin the moment. The two hugged briefly, but Ellie never felt so unconditionally loved, aside from her moments with Joel thus far. She was going to do whatever it took to stay here as long as she possibly could.

"Now I'm going to go back up and help Joel. Knock yourself out down here if you want. We'll let you know when everything's ready."

Ellie nodded her head in affirmation, she already knew what the first record she wanted to play was. Tess left her alone in the music room as she grabbed a stylized cover from the shelf. She placed the high quality headphones over her ears and lay the black circle onto the deck, moving the needle to the edge of the vinyl, watching the disc spin along.

Ellie sat on the floor, holding the cover in her hand. She was first met by soft crackles and pops, which felt oddly intimate. She wanted to see why this was Tess' favorite David Bowie record. The drum beat started filtering in, and despite wanting to absorb every detail on the sleeves in her hand, she felt her eyes close at the inclusion of the piano and melodic voice. So she resigned herself to just let herself get lost into the music, unaware of the transformative experience that the man from Mars was going to take her on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew I thought last chapter was long, and here I go nearly doubling the whole work.
> 
> Fun fact, Ziggy Stardust was the first record I ever listened to vinyl. I can't think of a better way to get introduced to analog music, so Ellie gets to share that experience. Music plays a huge part in my day to day, as well as when I write. Let me know if you want me to include what I listen to to help me shape this work into what it is.
> 
> The song Ellie listened to at the shoe store was Heroes by David Bowie, in case the specifics weren't incredibly clear. One of my personal favorite songs from one of my personal favorite artists. Keep rockin' the heavens my man!
> 
> Again, lots of stuff I can talk about, but I'll just let the work speak for itself.
> 
> Before I sign off, I just wanted to thank you all for your positive words and encouragement. I appreciate every single comment, kudos, bookmark, and view. Take care y'all!


	5. The School

Ellie, Joel, and Tess arrived early to their meeting with her guidance counselor. They were currently waiting in the small office space. Joel was asking her what classes she was interested in taking, but she still didn't know. That and she was preoccupied with replaying all the David Bowie albums that she listened to yesterday in her head on repeat. When Tess came down to let her know the food was ready, she had a bunch of the records on the floor, studying them and committing as many of the names of the songs she was hearing--and planned on hearing--to memory. Ellie was afraid that Tess would be mad. She didn't mean to have all her stuff littering the ground like that, and she made sure that none of the records were out of their sleeves so they wouldn't get damaged, but she was disappointed in herself for getting carried away and being so careless with another person's things. Tess just laughed it off though; said it was all 'part of the process.' She also said she did the same when she was Ellie's age--that Ellie reminded her of herself. That made Ellie feel a bit better about the whole thing, but she still swore to herself to be more respectful of Tess' belongings. 

She was a bit more vocal over dinner that night; she still didn't initiate any conversation, but wasn't as reserved when Tess asked her what she thought of the music. She mentally chastised herself for getting a bit over excited after she had time to reflect on the ordeal, but she couldn't help herself; going over in detail how cool and different and just plain awesome everything was. As much as she wanted to go back down and just listen to more music, she did promise Sarah she'd show the younger girl the results of her shopping excursion. She made sure the music room was cleaned up though, she wouldn't make Tess regret giving her such an incredible privilege. Sarah was swooning over her new stuff, commenting on how many cute outfit combinations she could put together. Ellie hadn't thought that far ahead, and frankly didn't really care too much about that. She was just looking forward to having clean clothes that didn't have fucking holes in them. While Sarah could still be a bit much to handle, Ellie found it a bit easier to be in the other girl's presence than before, not by a whole lot, but she was thankful that she felt like she was making progress. It was really nice though for someone to just be excited to see her things with no ulterior motive. That didn't stop her from double checking to make sure everything was where it should be afterward though.

Ellie joined Joel outside again that night. She really just wanted to thank him for taking her out, but at his behest, she wound up sitting with him while he played on his guitar. It took her a moment to realize he was playing some of the songs she was listening to in the record room. She mentioned how it sounded a little different than the sound on the record and he explained that Bowie was a fan of twelve string guitars for his acoustic segments. She felt good when he said she had a good ear to spot the difference, that not many could. He offered her the chance to play again, but this time she was more than happy to just sit there and refused. She did want to try it out again, but she was too content to listen to Joel play instrumentals of her favorite tracks so far.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I'm Marlene Freeman. You ready to get started, Ellie?"

Huh? She was pulled out of the solo to Suffragette City to remember she was sitting in the school guidance office. Damn, that was going to have to wait; she had business to attend to first.

"Yeah, let's get the show on the road," she joked, trying to hide her anxiety over the prospect of deciding her year's classes, assuming she was even going to be around for the whole thing.

Ms. Freeman laughed at the response, so she was pretty sure she was safe for now. The trio were led to her private office, where the door was closed behind them. Ellie was thankful to be sitting in between Joel and Tess, getting an odd sense of comfort in being wedged on either side of them. Ms. Freeman took the seat at her desk, spinning the chair so she could properly face the three.

"So I managed to get hold of most of your books for your core classes already. We were short the reading material for your English class with Mr. Stevenson, but it's already been ordered for you and should be here at some point during your first week," Ms. Freeman opened, Ellie was happy they were getting straight to business. "I was surprised to see your performance on the transcripts I received for you. You're actually a bit ahead of the standard curriculum. If you want I could put you in the advanced placement courses for English and Science."

God...dammit. Ellie wasn't too keen on the idea; it was hard enough to be the new kid, but the new kid having a reputation for being too smart never worked out for her. "If it isn't too much, do you think I could just be in the regular classes? With the transition and everything, I'm worried things can get overwhelming."

"That's perfectly okay, Ellie. We can look into it next year, then."

"Nothing wrong with taking a step back sometimes, kiddo," Joel chimed in.

Good, they bought it. That was a lot easier than she expected. She was baffled they were already bringing up next year though, they really didn't think she was going to be here by then, did they?

"That does bring up what I wanted to talk about next. Your teachers have already been informed of your situation, so if you have any problems or concerns you can reach out to them or myself. Our doors are always open."

Ellie doubted she was going to do that. It was hard enough to rely on outside help, and her teachers in the past weren't always the best at providing any when she did try to come to them for guidance in the past.

"Got it."

"So we follow a block schedule here, have you ever worked with one before?"

What the hell was that? The confused look on her face must have been a dead giveaway that she had absolutely no idea what the fuck Ms. Freeman was talking about.

"So we divide your classes up into four in the morning and four in the afternoon. You take three of each a day. The class that you had first in each part of that day you will have off the next day, and everything else gets shifted up into the slot above with your current off day becoming the last class for the next day. Let me show you," Ms. Freeman pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote on it, giving Ellie a visual demonstration of how the schedule worked. She was pretty sure she understood now.

"So if I have History first on Monday," she reiterated using her own schedule; "and then Geometry with English last, on Tuesday I don't have History, Geometry becomes my first class, followed by English and then an elective before lunch; with the same concept applying to the afternoon?"

"Exactly, it can be confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature. We implemented this a few years ago and the students came on to it fairly quickly so we decided to keep the schedule in place. Did you know what electives and what language you wanted to take? You get to take two electives a year, and we offer Spanish, French, Italian, and German."

She had absolutely no fucking idea what she wanted to take. She tried Spanish and French in her middle school days, and she felt stupid for not getting it. Maybe one of the other two? She heard there was a decently large German speaking population in Texas. Assuming she was going to be in this state for a while, that might be a useful skill.

"I don't know; German sounds kinda cool. I'll try that out this year, I guess. What electives do you offer?"

Ms. Freeman noted down something on a sheet of paper, probably to note German as her foreign language. "Most of the standard electives you can find here. Woodshop; Home Ec; Drama and Theater; we have theory classes and band, both concert and marching band, for our music program. Any of those sound interesting, Ellie?"

She was vaguely interested in band, she never got a chance to learn an instrument before. That might be fun. "Do you think I could give band a shot? I'd rather not do marching band though."

"That's fine," Ms. Freeman said with a soft smile; "I'll pencil you in for concert band."

"Do you, um, do you have a writing class or something?" Ellie felt self-conscious for even bringing it up.

"Yeah, we have a creative writing course. Did you want me to lock that in for you?"

"Yeah, I'd like that."

As Ms. Freeman was writing down on the sheet, she started shuffling another paper on top and started writing on that one. "So you're going to be seeing Mr. Stevenson a lot then. He'll be your writing, English, and German teacher."

Wait, she could see the English teacher also working the writing class, but teaching German too? That was just weird. Ellie was handed a paper sheet with her schedule. Morning was History, Geometry, English, Band and the afternoon had Earth Science, Creative Writing, Gym, and last was German. Sweet, a lot of her easier stuff was at the end of the day.

"I'm going to get all this finalized for you here, Ellie. If you want to take a quick tour of the school while you wait for me to get everything plugged in here, you are more than welcome too. On the working copy I handed you, I also included your room numbers on there so you can get an idea of where all your classes are."

"That sounds like a good idea. You up for it, Ellie?" Joel asked.

She actually wasn't too keen on the idea at first. Joel and Tess were already going out of their way just to get her here to begin with. She didn't want to add on the burden of being here any longer than they already needed to, but she found refusing either of them to be difficult. That worried her a bit.

"Yeah, sure. I mean, if you two are up to it."

"What's an extra few minutes?" Tess chimed in with a stretch as she stood from her seat. "Need to loosen my legs up anyhow."

It was settled then, she guessed. After a brief explanation on how to understand the room numbers, the trio exited with Ms. Freeman. As they were being shown the exit, a man about Joel's age walked through the door into the guidance office. Light brown hair, short well-groomed beard, soft eyes; he wasn't quite as tall as Joel, but he looked pretty tall to Ellie. He definitely took care of his appearance. Ellie noted his ironed shirt with a vest, nice brown shoes, and styled hair. He looked a bit like a hipster--glasses and all. Even though he was probably too old for it, he was pulling it off so Ellie figured more power to him. If you own it, go for it she supposed.

"Ah, Mr. Stevenson, I got one of your new kids here. This is Ellie," Ms. Freeman introduced.

The older man that she now knew as Mr. Stevenson, brightened a bit, "Ellie Williams? It's a pleasure to finally have a face to the name. I'm Mr. Stevenson, you'll have me for English."

She took his hand when he offered it to her. Apparently she was going to be seeing him a lot this year, having him actually teach three of her classes. Mr. Stevenson extended his hand to Joel after finishing with her.

"Alex Stevenson, you two are Ellie's guardians I'm assuming?"

"Yes," Joel took his hand in a firm shake, "Joel Miller. We're fostering Ellie."

"Theresa Walker," Tess followed suit, taking his hand after he finished with Joel. So that was her full name.

"Well I'm looking forward to having you in class, Ellie," Mr. Stevenson said, bringing his attention back to her. "You actually had already done a report on the summer assignment. I figured you wouldn't want to have to redo a paper you've already written so I just used it for your grade. I hope you don't mind. I gave you a ninety-two. Of course if you want to do it again you can, but you'll already have some catching up to do, so I put that in for you."

Oh wow, that was pretty sweet. Get an A minus without actually doing anything, she'll take it.

"Thanks, Mr. Stevenson. I think I'll let it stay as is. I don't want to overload myself too fast with the work I already need to make up."

"Wise decision. It was a very good paper; couple syntax errors here and there and the occasional improper comma, but everything was very well put together. You should be proud of that paper. Past-you was definitely looking out for future-you," he laughed.

Hey, he said that too? She thought she was the only one that used that expression.

"You're actually going to be seeing a lot more of each other," Ms. Freeman coined in. "Ellie's going to be in your free writing and German classes."

"Is that so?" he looked at her curiously. Ellie nodded to confirm him. "Wunderbar!" He exclaimed. She assumed that meant wonderful; sounded pretty close to the English word at least. "I'm sure we're going to get along great then. I have a feeling you're going to be one of my stars. Just do your best, and reach out to me if you need any help with anything, okay?"

"Okay."

"I'll leave you three to it then, unless you have any questions for me, Ellie?"

"No, not that I can think of at least."

"Then I'll see you on Monday," he smiled and departed with a wave, leaving the three to their prior goal to explore the school.

Even though they had gotten themselves lost a handful of times, they managed to find all of her classrooms she would be attending. They even managed to find her locker. Ellie had a hard time getting the hang of the combination, the prick could be real temperamental, but she eventually got it worked out. Wasn't extremely big, but it would do just fine for however long she was going to be using it. They were just about done with scouting the school, all they had left was to find the band room. Once again they had gotten themselves lost. Tess kept cracking jokes that they built the school like this on purpose, but Ellie and Joel could tell she was getting frustrated with the constant backtracking and dead ends. They somehow managed to put their three brains together and find the performing arts and band wings. They could hear the band classes practicing through the rooms.

"Oh, hello there, can I help you with anything?"

Ellie jumped at the unexpected company. Whipping around she was met with an older man, his head shaved wearing a simple shirt and slacks. She took note he was wearing the same Converse as she was, which struck her as odd, but she didn't dwell on it too much.

"Oh, this is Ellie," Joel jumped in, rescuing her from the awkwardness that was conversation with a stranger. "She's being transferred in. We took a small tour while we were waiting for her schedule to get finalized by her guidance counselor. Was a good idea too; we had a hard time finding the band room."

The older teacher laughed, "yeah it can be confusing at first. I'm Mr. Dauer," he introduced. "I'm in charge of the music department. So you're joining band then, Ellie?" She nodded, her shyness making her lose her voice. "That's great. What do you play?"

Ah crap, she has to speak now. "Um, nothing. I wanted to learn though."

"Any idea on what you want to learn?"

"Uh...I honestly haven't that far ahead."

She expected him to be frustrated with the admission, but instead he just laughed. What was with the adults in her life lately not being complete garbage? Unless he was laughing at her for being stupid, then even though she agreed with the sentiment, he would still be an asshole.

"Well, David Bowie was also a Saxophone player, on top of all the other things he was known for. Think you'd want to join his ranks?"

Holy crap, he was?! Jeez that guy could fucking do anything. Wait, how did Mr. Dauer...oh yeah, she wore the shirt today. Truth be told she forgot she decided to go for it this morning. She remembers Tess looking quite pleased when she walked down to the kitchen that morning. Pleased and...she likes to think that there was some pride there as well. It made her feel pretty good to think that.

"Yeah...yeah that sounds pretty nice," she tried to hide the excitement from coming through her voice, but couldn't keep it completely down.

"Alright, let me make a note," he pulled out his phone and began typing away; "and it was Ellie…"

"Williams," Joel provided.

"Williams. I got it in. I'll make sure whoever is your instructor to get you a sax. You're first month or so will be in the practice room while you get used to it. Do you know how to read music?"

"Not really," Ellie answered shyly, a bit ashamed that she had a lot more work ahead of her than the other kids.

"That's fine, we'll teach you."

"I can help her with that when she's home," Joel added. "I can read sheet music."

"Great, then you'll be up to speed in no time."

Ellie was touched that Joel was willing to help her with this. She rarely received it from all the other people she's encountered over the years. She briefly pondered what life could've been like had she met him and Tess earlier, but squashed the thought before it could grow too strong. No sense dwelling on the past, and she didn't even know if she'd be with them for very long.

"If there isn't anything else I could help with, I'll be on my way to put the order in for the sax."

"Yeah, we should check back into guidance to get the official schedule for her," Tess spoke. They had been here for a while, it'd be nice to head back to the house.

"Well I hope you enjoy your time in band, Ellie."

"I think I will. Thanks, Mr. Dauer."

Thankfully they managed to retrace their steps much more successfully than their first time around. Ms. Freeman's time frame was correct; the schedule was ready for them when they came in. Now that they had everything straightened out, Ellie made sure to grab her textbooks before leaving. One less thing to worry about was always nice.

On the way back to the house, Joel and Tess were asking her what she thought so far. She honestly had no clue what to make of everything. It seemed alright based on her first impression, but she could never be too confident in any first impression. The two teachers she met seemed okay though, so there's that. In the end she just said it seemed fine. She figured it would be easier to try and let the conversation die out than to try and explain how she felt. Joel seemed to be satisfied with just letting it go, but Tess was a tough sale. She kept pushing about whether she was excited or not, what she thought about the teachers she met, and so on. On one hand, it was a bit frustrating to keep getting grilled, but on the other she was glad someone was taking enough of an interest to ask her these things. 

She remembers some of the other foster parents she's had over the years. She couldn't explain why, but she'd get frustrated when people would ask her bullshit questions like 'what's new?' and 'how's school?' yet also get mad that no one really cared about how she was really doing or whatever. She knew it was hypocritical, but no one ever really asked the right questions, never seemed like they were actually interested. Instead it always felt as if they were only asking because it was the polite or proper thing to do, and Tess was, at least for the most part, asking the right questions; or in the very least asking them the right way. Maybe that was what was bothering her so much--that these two seemed to be effortlessly catching her off guard and breaking past her defenses. She really didn't want to get too comfortable, yet she keeps feeling like things kinda make sense with these two. She pushes that thought away.

She did her best to answer Tess' probing questions without getting wrapped up in how they made her feel. Now that she was talking though, Joel was back to pushing the matter as well. Why they were actually interested in how she truly felt, and why she thought they actually did, she didn't know. The concept was extremely foreign to her. She felt like she was doing okay with only Tess to appease, but now with Joel in the mix, it was a lot harder for her to only focus on how she should answer the questions and not on how it made her feel.

It was definitely weird when Tess implied that Mr. Stevenson was cute. Joel immediately got flustered over such a bold accusation, especially considering he was right there. Thankfully they divulged into their own conversation about it, with Tess poking fun at Joel for being jealous. Ellie supposed he was good-looking or whatever, but she never really concerned herself with the attractiveness of others. Was it normal for girls her age to crush on men older than them? Maybe, but again she didn't really worry too much about that. She always was more inclined to just get by in her day to day and not dwell on things like that. Maybe one day, but that day wasn't today. Thankfully the two were back to normal with Tess assuaging Joel's jealousy, asserting he was the only man for her.

When they got back to the house, Ellie spent some time in the room to organize her backpack, stocking up on her fresh supplies and new books. While she figured she could just hang out here for a while after she finished, she didn't feel it was right to avoid the rest of the house's occupants. With a deep breath to swell her chest with false confidence, she made her way downstairs. Maybe she could help with dinner? That felt like something she could do to prove her worth. Just whom she was trying to impress at this point, she had no idea. It wasn't just Joel and Tess anymore, she felt she had to prove to herself she was worth their time and attention.

She was stopped by a noise coming from the room opposite the one she was staying in. It sounded like Sarah was frustrated with something. Ellie was about to continue with the original objective, but she paused again with a frown. She can't ignore Sarah forever. As much as they have been together these past couple days, it has been rather one sided with Ellie not really making much of an effort to connect with the younger girl. That really wasn't fair to her. So despite her initial judgment, she found herself knocking on Sarah's door. She heard some shuffling on the other side before the door opened a bit; enough to fully reveal the blonde girl, but not enough to imply an invitation inside the confines of her domain.

"Oh, hey Ellie," Sarah greeted, a bit off guard that the roles have been reversed; "what's up?"

"Nothing really. Everything okay in there? Seemed like something's got you all riled up."

"Oh yeah, just science homework. I swear they make it confusing as all hell on purpose."

"Eh, not everyone gets it at first. What are you working on right now?"

"Laws of movement or whatever."

"You mean Newton's Laws of Motion?"

Sarah's eyes lit up in connection, "yeah that!"

"You know I learned that a few years ago. I had a pretty good grasp on it. Want me to help?"

"Can you!?" Sarah immediately perked up to her usual energetic self. "I've been hung up on this stuff for the whole week. I have no clue how anyone can figure this shit out. I'd owe you big time!"

Oh God, this was going to be tough. It was a lot easier to deal with this when she was down to like a four, but now she's back to at least a seven.

"Don't mention it," Ellie offered, doing her best to hide her discomfort with the sudden change in disposition. She really didn't like getting caught on the back foot. "Just show me where you are right now."

Sarah took her by the wrist and led her into her room. Ellie could hear the door click closed once more as she inspected Sarah's room. Some of her clothes were on the floor, a soccer ball was tucked in the corner, posters for some bands and movies were taped to the walls. Average room for an average preteen. She suddenly feels envy for the blonde, but immediately feels guilty for the emotion. She crushes down that ugly feeling as best she can while Sarah shoves a text and notebook into her hands.

"How anyone gets this stuff is beyond me."

Well maybe if you fucking bothered to take decent notes, it wouldn't be this hard, Ellie thought to herself as she took in the state of the notebook. Doodles littered her pages, and not just in the margins. The was quite literally a drawing of a puppy with super sad eyes with the tagline 'me' in the middle of a sentence. Ellie can understand daydreaming, taking poor notes on occasion, and overall just not being a 'school type;' she'd doodle in her margins or just not pay attention when she was a bit further ahead than everyone else, or draw visual aids to help her remember things. She remembers when she was first learning about Newton, she drew an apple and a moon in her notes to help her remember the story of how Newton first theorized about gravity, but this was fucking ridiculous. Did she just not even try? With a terse sigh, Ellie plopped the notebook to the bed. She wasn't going to get anything useful out of it. She flipped through the textbook, hoping to find a good starting point.

"So what exactly are you not getting?"

Sarah shifted over a bit to make room for Ellie to join her on the bed; "I don't know, all of it? This crap is too smart for me."

Okay that was straight up not true.

"Well what is the homework exactly?"

"Um," Sarah digs through her backpack on the floor. She didn't even have the damn thing out? "This paper right here, explain and give an example of each law. Why is there even more than one?"

"Because each has a specific property and condition," Ellie brushed some of her hair that had fallen out of her hair tie from her face. "Here, why don't you explain to me, as best you can, what the first law is. That's the easy one." They were all pretty easy.

"Uh...if something is moving it's supposed to keep moving?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

She was going to elaborate where Sarah had missed the vital piece of information, but the younger girl jumped ahead.

"Which makes no damn sense! If you move something, it doesn't just keep going, it stops when it runs out of energy."

She mixed a bunch of things up, and even then it wasn't quite right. Judging by how her notes looked, she probably started paying attention, zoned out for a bit, then resumed the absorption of information in the middle of the previous discussion point. Figures.

"No, an object in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force," she quoted. "So if you roll a ball, right, it was not in motion until you transferred your energy to move it. It moves until the air resistance, the outside force, pushes back against it which makes it stop moving," Gravity too, and whatever surface you're rolling the ball on, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to get Sarah to follow all of that information. "So if you're in space and you nudge something, it just flies forever until it hits something. Or it gets caught in an objects' gravity, which is the same concept. Something else interfered with its travel."

"Woah, why didn't anyone say that?" Sarah asked, flabbergasted that someone kept something so fundamental from her.

They probably did...on multiple occasions, Ellie monotoned, careful to keep her thoughts from turning to speech. "That's the basic idea. Do you know anything about the second law?"

"That's the math-y one right?"

That was...one way to put it. "Yeah, force equals mass times acceleration. That's what allows us to do things like space flight."

"Woah, really?"

"Yeah. Okay so, Earth has gravity right?" She got a nod in return, "but gravity isn't infinite. So knowing that, there has to be a speed that escapes Earth's gravity. That is where the equation comes in. If you take how heavy an object is and give it enough speed, it'll have enough force to escape the Earth's gravity," or at least that was the easiest way for her to put it.

Sarah just shook her head. Did she not get it? Ellie really didn't know how else to put it. "That's crazy. How do people figure this stuff out?"

"By being badass smart."

"You're telling me. I can hardly keep up."

Neither could she at first. Isaac Newton was indeed a fucking badass.

"Thanks. I'd be so lost without you."

Ellie paused skimming through the book. "Don't mention it. I don't have homework yet, so I was looking for something to do."

"You getting used to everything okay?"

No, people actually looking after me and feeling like they actually care about me is fucking weird and it makes me scared as shit that I'm going to get stabbed in the back. "Getting there. Only been a couple days."

"Anything I can do to help?"

Keep yourself at about a four instead of an eight, 'kay thanks. "No, not really. Just some things I have to get used to on my own."

"Like what?"

Ellie paused in the book again. She debated to pretend to read so she could avoid eye contact, but in the end she set it aside; it was going to be one of those talks. She sat quietly for the time being though, unsure of where to start, how to phrase it, or even what she was comfortable sharing in the first place. 

"Sorry, I know I'm being nosy. Dad already told me to be careful with asking personal questions. I just want to be helpful, but I bet I'm just being annoying."

Now Ellie just felt bad. "No, just like...okay so everything is super normal, and I'm not used to normal." Sarah gave her an odd look. Ellie felt a drawn out sigh escape her lungs, "growing up for me has never been standard like it was for other kids. That became my normal, and getting to experience what normal is supposed to be like is fucking awesome, but it also kinda makes me feel bad when it throws me off. Like I said, just need to get used to everything."

Sarah nodded her head in understanding, or at least somewhat understanding considering she really doesn't know the differences in their lives. "Makes sense. Well if there is anything I can help with, just let me know. We're in this together now."

Ellie fought the frown from making its way over her face. She tried to smile to cover it up, but settled with the neutral expression that rested there. "Yeah, will do," she went back to the textbook before it got anymore awkward. "Third law, any action has an equal and opposite reaction. What do you think that means?"

"No idea."

Ellie fought the urge to headbutt the book in her hands. "Just try."

"Okay, like if I push something, it'll move?"

"See, not that hard. A better example would be if you jump from a boat, the boat will move backwards because of the push from your legs to go forward."

"That simple?"

"Pretty much."

Sarah brightened at the prospect of finally understanding a hard subject. "Thanks! I think I get it now," Sarah leaned over and crushed Ellie in a hug.

She wasn't expecting the other girl to do that, so she sat there for a moment, not sure what to do with her hands. Tentatively, she placed them on Sarah's back. "No problem. Just have to think a bit on it; you'll get it."

"You're so smart," Sarah said, unwrapping herself from the brunette. "How do you do it?"

Ellie looked at her quizzically, "I don't understand what you mean. I'm not really that smart. I just really like space shit, so I paid attention in class when I learned it."

"But you understand it, I couldn't do that if you didn't help me."

"And I'm sure there are things you get just fine that I'd want to smash my head into the wall just trying to comprehend them."

Sarah laughed lightly, "doubt it. If it isn't soccer I'm usually pretty lost."

"You have a lot of friends at school?"

Now Sarah didn't quite get where the conversation was heading. "I got a few. I know a lot of people though."

"Better than me. I'm not very good at making friends. Social situations I'm not super strong on. There you go, something you're good at that I just can't seem to figure out."

"I find that hard to believe. You did just fine with me."

"Didn't feel like I did. Anyway, I'll let you get to your homework. I should go see if your dad needs help cooking."

Sarah cocked her head to the side. "Tonight's Friday. Usually Dad orders pizza and we have a movie night."

Well that was news to her. Just as she was about to voice it, they heard a knock across the hall.

"Ellie?" they heard Joel mutter, "you in there?"

"Hang on," Sarah got up from her seat on the bed. "We're in here, Dad."

Joel made his way to the now open door, "so that's where you ended up. Was wondering what you were up to."

Did he think she was up to something? Just breathe, everything's fine.

"Ellie was helping me with my science homework."

"Were you now?" he goes on in that same tone. Teasing; Ellie finally settles on teasing. Her neck and shoulders release the tension that was building in the muscles. "Well that was mighty kind of you, Ellie."

"Eh, wasn't much. Said you were looking for me?"

"Yeah, we're ordering pizza tonight. Was wondering what you would like on it."

"Oh, whatever really. I'm not too picky."

"So simple stuff? Plain, pepperoni, that sort of thing? That good with you, Sarah?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Alright, well I'll leave you two to it then. Head on down when you finish up here and pick out your movies. You two are picking first."

With that, Joel left the two girls to their own devices, closing the door behind them. Sarah gave her a look, "told you."

"Sure did. I have no idea what I'm going to pick. If you're all good here, I'll take a look at what you guys got."

"Yeah I'll finish up. Go take a look at the collection, we got a lot."

"Alright, I'll see you down there," Ellie said, leaving Sarah alone to her homework.

So Ellie found herself fumbling through the Millers' movie collection trying to decide what movie she'd want to share with everyone. The thought kind of scared her, but the more she searched, the more she felt that it didn't really matter. This family didn't seem to mind her being around, nor did they seem to judge her for just existing, so they probably wouldn't judge her for a random movie pick. She smiled to herself with a bunch of DVDs on the floor in front of her, content with feeling that for once, she kind of felt like she belonged somewhere. She really liked that feeling, and hoped that in time, she wouldn't feel like such an outcast. This was the best group of people she'd ever met, and she resolved to do her best for them. They deserved that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn this was difficult to get done. First off, I had to rewrite the whole ending since I thought I should include the whole movie night, but in the end I decided it was unnecessary for a full scene. I also have been working a ton since we reopened, like 6 or 7 work week stuff. So that kept me a bit. I also have been writing not 1 but 2 D&D campaigns that I DM for. Needless to say I've had a busy month. So sorry for the wait, but it is in fact finally here. While I'm not as big a fan of this particular chapter, I'm glad we got some one on one time with Sarah. In the end I felt it was good to get an idea of how Ellie's teachers were going to be, so the chapter more or less remained how it was in my outline. If I keep sticking to the outline, we got one more chapter to go before Ellie's first day of school! Take care everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a concept I've always wanted someone to do, but never really seen done, aside from maybe one or two that never really vibed with me. I hesitated even doing this as it has been a LONG time since I've written anything and am so out of practice that I really didn't want to muff up my own concept, but obviously I said screw it and did it anyway. Hopefully I can shake off the cobwebs soon enough to be happy with how it comes out. I've never written anything for this site, so I probably muffed up the tags and stuff, so I'll update those as I update this more. Unfortunately I have a lot of things to do in my day to day, so I may have sporadic updates, but I'll do the best I can. In the meantime I hope you enjoyed what you've seen and if you'd like to leave a comment, I'd love to read it! Feedback always helps me maintain motivation to continue these kinds of projects.


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